LB 

{NDOSTRIAL-ARTS AND 

PREVOCATIONAl EDUCATION 

IW lUNlOR HIGH SCHOOLS 



£D6ERT0N 




Class JLBJLsa^ 

Copiglit'N? 



COFIRIGHT DEPOSm 



Industrial-Arts and Prevocational 
Education 

in Intermediate and 
Junior-High Schools 



A. H2 Edgerton 

Assistant Professor of Vocational Education 

Indiana University 




BRUCE -MILWAUKEE 



The Bruce Publishing Co. 
Milwaukee Wisconsin 



c 



'^^^L 






Copyright, 1922. 
A. H. EDGERTON. 



Printed in U. S. A. 



AUG 19 1322 



©CI.AB779J2 



PREFACE 

It is hoped that both the general and detailed ex- 
planations of actual procedure involved in several of 
these courses and projects may aid instructors and ad- 
ministrators in determining the relative possibilities in 
the different plans for realizing common aims or pur- 
poses. Numerous requests for such specific information 
during the past few months have made it evident that 
there is an increasing demand for this type of material 
when interpreted in terms of the results obtained and 
tJie means employed. In order that all concerned might 
derive the most help from these valuable reports, it has 
been decided to present them in connection with the 
findings and implications resulting from this investiga- 
tion of 379 intermediate and junior-high schools. 

This and other recent investigations clearly show 
that tradition, rather than present-day need, still too 
largely determines the purpose, content, and method of 
.the industrial subjects in the seventh, eighth, and ninth 
years. N'evertheless, these suggestive reports of the 
rapid developments in intermediate and junior-high 
schools are so many evidences of a serious attempt to 
prepare our pupils for efficient service and more intelli- 
gent citizenship. Today, as never before, it is evident 
that the larger values in industrial or manual arts edu- 
cation can not be realized alone from the mere doing 
and making of things, where skill in the manipulation 



PREFACE. 

of materials, tools and machines is the main objective. 
If industrial activities are to play a large part in meet- 
ing the problems of general education, is it not reason- 
able to expect them to share the responsibility for help- 
ing boys to develop perspective and thinking power in 
connection with real life situations? The importance 
ot skill and knowledge, should be recognized as a factor 
in general education ; however, should not these be vital- 
ized through such concrete experiences as will stimulate 
thought and actually make a diiference in the lives of 
our pupils as members of families and of vocational and 
civic groups ? 

In many of the upper grade curricula, the time 
allowed for information and shopwork has been quite 
limited. However, many schools are attempting to re- 
13resent several types of industrial activities in order 
that their pupils may have a more complete understand- 
ing of industry and likewise be prepared to make intelli- 
gent choices of both educational opportunities and life 
occupations. Some administrators and teachers have 
had the courage to consider the school shops and local 
enterprises somewhat as field laboratories where pupils 
may investigate important methods, products, condi- 
tions, and requirements in the various divisions of in- 
dustry. As a result of these studies, which are un- 
limited in possibilities, boys are brought in contact not 
only with materials, tools, machines, and processes of 
manipulation but also with worthwhile information con- 

4 



PREFACE 

cerning the work and the workers in each activity repre- 
sented. 

Although recent, the rapid growth of intermediate 
schools or junior-high schools represents a serious at- 
tempt to assist all children, regardless of their social 
status or possible life work, in meeting the new and 
changing demands for many-sided service. This grow- 
ing tendency to respect individual differences by provid- 
ing partial differentiation (from one-third to one-half 
of the school time) during the seventh, eightli and nintli 
grades, assumes that pupils should he provided with fhe 
I'inds and qualities of Icnowledge and sliill (or dexler- 
i/y) which will help tliem to establish those liahils, alti- 
tudes, and appreciations that contribute most to their 
daily conduct as intelligent citizens, consumers, and 
producers. 

The selected reports on a number of carefully 
planned and successfully developed industrial-arts 
courses and projects were prepared by teachers and 
supervisors luiving somcAvliat varied points of view and 
results. These contributi(ms were collected by the in- 
dustrial-Arts Committee of the National Society for the 
Study of Education and are published in this usable 
form by special request. The various statements of ex- 
perience encountered in offering the different activities 
to meet the needs and interests of early adolescence 
should prove suggestive to all concerned. 

5 



PREFACE 

While it is encouraging to note these marked im- 
|)rovements in methods and procedure, it certainl,y 
would be unwise at this time to consider any stereotyped 
plan as more than tentative. These promising results 
should point the way for further experimentation, which 
is certain to make more reliable comparisons and meas- 
urements possible. If industrial-arts courses are to con- 
tinue to occupy an important place in the program for 
general education, the relative possibilities in the differ- 
ent plans for realizing common objectives must be de- 
termined more scientifically than heretofore. Our 
future practices should be based upon established fact, 
as far as possible, rather than chiefly upon opinion, 
which naturally is variable. In other words, there 
apparently is an increasing need for scientifically deter- 
mining how to modify our present methods in order to 
have seventh, eighth, and ninth year boys learn most 
effectively and economically. 

Acknowledgment is gratefully made to the many 
teachers and administrators who so generously aider! 
the writer in securing and interpreting data for the 
various comparative studies included in this publica- 
tion, and also to those who have cooperated by contrib- 
uting brief reports of their experience in successfully 
developing courses and projects. Words of thanks are 
due Mr. L. A. Herr of the Lincoln School, New York 
City, and Mr. G. H. Hargitt of the Ben Blewett Junior 

6 



PREFACE 

High School, St. Louis, Mo., for their able assistance 
in selecting and adapting these reports. The writer 
also is under obligation to those whose published works 
have been referred to in presenting the results of these 
investigations. Especial indebtedness is expressed to 
Professor F. G. Bonser of Teachers College, Columbia 
University, for his encouragement in formulating and 
publishing the studies, as well as for his helpful editor- 
ial criticism. 

A. H. E. 



CONTENTS 

I. Meeting Present-Day Needs. 

page 

1. Industrial Experiences as a Means of General 

Education 11 

2. Current Tendencies in Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth 

Year Courses 13 

3. Types of These Junior-High School Industrial-Arts 

Activities : 19 

(a) Printing and Publishing 20 

(b) Machine Shop 22 

4. Related Information as a Basis for Industrial In- 

sight and Guidance 24 

5. Possibilities in Courses for Educational and Voca- 

tional Guidance 26 

6. Problems in the Organization and Offering of In- 

dustrial Activities 29 

7. Improved Methods Needed in Many Industrial Arts 

Courses 32 

II, Organizing and Conducting Representative 
Activities. 

1. Improvements Result from Clear-Cut Objectives.. 39 

2. Chief Reasons for Offering Try-Out Courses ' 40 

3. Determining the Important Need for Courses .... 41 

4. Industrial Work as a Functional Activity 42 

5. Wide Range in Content of Industrial Courses: ...• 44 

(a) Rural industrial Work 44 

(b) Industrial-arts courses in cities 46 

6. General Methods in Organizing Try-Out Courses 48 

7. How Industrial-Arts Activities are Conducted ... 51 

8. Basis of Semi-Commercial Work 52 

9. Conducting Representative Industrial Courses: ... 55 

(a) Types of Industrial Arts Conducted in 
Smaller Communities — Hastings, N. Y., 

as an Illustration : 56 

(b) Types of Junior-High School Industrial 
Activities in Large Systems; St. Louis, 
Mo., (60), and Rochester, N. Y., (64), 
as Illustrations. 

8 



CONTENTS 

III. Methods of Offering Courses and Projects. 

page 

Problems Respecting Individual Differences 68 

Industrial-Arts Instruction and Characteristics of 

Early Adolescence 60 

Relation of Likes and Dislikes to Abilities and In- 
abilities 71 

Successes and Failures Reveal Aptitudes and Abil- 
ities 72 

Methods of Offering Industrial-Arts Courses and 

Projects 74 

Successfully Tried Unit-Courses in Large and Small 
Systems ; 78 

(a) Eighth Grade Prcvocatonal or Aptitude 
Courses 78 

(b) Cabinet Making Organized on a LTseful 
and Productive Basis 80 

(c) Practical Course in Electricity 81 

(d) Electrical Construction and Repair 84 

Suggestive Types of Industrial-Arts Projects and 

Problems; 87 

(a) The Doll House as a School Project ... 87 

(b) Projects in Concrete Construction 94 

(c) Model Building Construction Projects . . 96 

(d) Model Garage Construction Projects ... 96 

(e) Ballot Boxes and Folding Booths as 
Community Projects 98 

(f) Making and Operating Radio Instru- 
ments 100 

(g) Model Motor-Boat Building Projects 102 

(h) Teaching Cooking to Boys and Furni- 
ture Construction to Girls 103 




Industrial- Arts and Prevocational 

Education in Our Intermediate 

and Junior-High Schools 

I. Meeting Present Day Needs 

Industrial Experiences as a Means of General Education. 

N" keeping with the rapid changes in our 
social and industrial development, there 
are growing evidences that an increasing 
number of schools are seriously attempting 
to prepare boys and girls to meet the new 
demands for efficient service as members of families and 
of vocational and civic groups. Perhaps the most 
]ioticeable indication of this step has been the decided 
change in the purpose, content, and method of the work 
now offered both in industrial courses as a means of 
general education and in classes for specific vocational 
education. Although industrial arts, manual arts, or 
the so-called prevocational courses, and strictly voca- 
tional classes do aim at entirely different objectives, 
nevertheless these are closely related in so far as a com- 
plete program for a democratic education is concerned. 
In fact, the success of vocational education partially de- 
pends upon the previous understanding, insight, and 
general acquaintance which the pupils have had with the 

11 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

actual conditions and relationships in the industrial and 
commercial world. Of unquestionable importance is 
also the additional fact that the future wage-earner is 
a consumer as well as a producer; that a program for 
public education which neglects to help individuals to 
consume intelligently and utilize the hours of leisure 
wisely is decidedly undemocratic. 

Experience has taught us that the instruction for 
those who are preparing for direct entrance into indus- 
trial pursuits or skilled trades, or are returning for 
trade extension work, should help them to acquire a 
high degree of manipulative skill or add to their tech- 
nical efficiency. Recent reports from intermediate 
schools and junior-high schools ou successfully tried 
units of industrial work, some of which will be given 
later in this publication, likewise show a generally ac- 
cepted belief that adolescent pupils might well gain some 
knowledge of a reasonably wide range of typical indus- 
trial activities by having first-hand information and 
experience in important processes of manufacture, 
transportation, and commerce as a foundation for their 
life work. In the former case, the success of the individ- 
ual depends largely upon skill and knowledge as these 
relate to quality and quantity production in some form. 
In the latter case, the "self -fin ding" period demands 
appreciative insight into a sufficient numler and variety 
of representati^ie expenences to try out, discover, and 

12 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

develop ability for understanding mid doing ^ OjH well an 
managing and supervising industrial ivork. 

Current Tendencies in Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Year 
Courses. 

The juuior-high school or intermediate-school plan 
for selecting and organizing as large a variety of pro- 
fitable experiences as possible and practicable is favored 
by over 123 of the 379 schools which have recently re- 
ported from 21 dilt'erent states on the industrial activi- 
ties now being oli'ered to their seventh, eighth, and ninth 
grade pupils. Table I shows that practically no changes 
are claimed in the purpose, work, and method of the 
industrial subjects in less than ten per cent of these 
so-called reorganized departments. However, these same 
data show that over 67 per cent of the 379 schools in 
question not only include notable changes in their upper 
grade curricula but also encourage the deferring of 
definite vocational choices as long as is possible. The 
majority of the school organizations which favor spec- 
ialization in particular differentiated courses, either at 
the beginning or at the end of the first term in the 
seventh grade, are located in cities of over 200,000 popu- 
lation, indicating that the chief reason why nearly one- 
third of these schools now foster courses which me op- 
tional in name only, and actually impose early choices 
on the adolescent pupils, may be due to the administra- 
tive difficulty involved in the offering of a greater num- 
ber and variety of activities to large numbers of pupil? . 

13 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

With two exceptions, all of the administrators who have 
commented on this situation state frankly that they are 
desirous of overcoming this apparent undemocratic 
practice just as soon as a satisfactory arrangement can 
be devised to meet the administrative problem of pro- 
viding for all of the pupils. 

In the 303 most progressive schools reporting on 
their main objectives, the equipment, the materials, and 
the technique in nearly all cases are chosen from import- 
ant industrial pursuits, but with few exceptions, the rec- 
ognized purpose of the work and study in these courses, 
as shown in Table II, is not primarily to produce skilled 
workers for definite vocations, as is true in the trade 
preparatory or trade continuation classes. The main 
objective is rather to help all pupils, regardless of their 
social status or possible lifework, to develop industrial 
intelligence and thinking power in connection with life 
situations. Therefore, each activity not only includes 
contact with typical materials, tools and machines, but 
also is organized with the intention of (1) giving 
broader appreciation of economic production and de- 
manding more respect for the various workers and their 
work; (2) preparing for more intelligent judgment 
and use of industrial products and service; (3) helping 
to develop insight and to promote more efficient produc- 
tion; (4) offering opportunity for testing the inter- 
ests and aptitudes of students, both in positive and nega- 

14 











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15 



Table II. Main Reason Given for Offering Industrial 
Activities and Related Studies in Each of 303 Inter- 
mediate and Junior- High Schools. 



Schools 



Chief Emphasis and Claipis 



Number Percent 



Contributing to the general experience, 
all-round development, and industrial 
intelligence - 

1. Understanding and appreciating 
economic production in some form; 

2. Gaining respectful attitudes to- 
ward the various workers and their work; 

3. Having ability to judge industrial 
products' and do simple repair and con- 
struction work, etc. 

Aiding in the intelligent selection of in- 
dustrial occupations without encour- 
aging early choices 

1. Trying-oiit individual inclinations, 
interests, and capacities for industrial 
pursuits through typical experiences; 

2. Making reliable studies of the 
conditions, demands, and opportunities in 
related occupations; etc. 

Enriching the school experience of the 
pupils through concrete situations... 

1. Having science, mathematics, and 
other subjects, profit from a better under- 
standing of materials, processes, tools 
and machines; 

2. Providing for the individual needs 
of pupils who would not remain for 
academic education alone. 

3. Helping pupils more wisely to 
choose future courses in secondary and 
higher education, etc. 

Preparing for entrance into industrial 
vocations 

1. Extending the try-oUt activity to 
meet the preparatory-vocational needs of 
pupils who find it necessary to leave 
school with a minimum of preparation; 

2. Offering greater opportunities for 
commercial experiences in shopwork by 
cooperating with outside productive plants 
during the ninth year, etc. 



118 



101 



78 



39 



33 



26 



16 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

tive ways, in order that worthy needs and capacities 
may be developed through specific training. As shown 
by Table I, the size of the community too often deter- 
mines the extent, nature, and effectiveness of the activi- 
ties offered. 

That the actual shopwork in a considerable num- 
ber of these large and smaller secondary schools includes 
a fairly wide range of experiences is shown in Figure I. 
These are selected in the main from present-day occu- 




No. of 

tles^^' 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 

FIG. 1. INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITIES OFFERED IN 379 JUNIOR 
HIGH SCHOOLS. 

17 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

pational pursuits, such as printing and publishing, car- 
pentry, cabinet and furniture making, wood finishing, 
pattern making, foundry, forging, machine shop, sheet 
metal, concrete, photography, electrical, plumbing and 
pipefitting, automobile operation and repair, general 
construction and repair, drafting, and the like. Be- 
cause of the advantage in having several kinds of ma- 
terials, tools and machines available in one room for im- 
mediate use, and also because of the extended opportun- 
ity for observing many distinct types of construction 
work, composite workshop units frequently h as be en de- 
veloped in preference to a number of separate, special- 
ized shops, especially in the smaller communities. In 
either case, all projects and problems taken up in con- 
nection with each one of these activities preferably re- 
sult in serviceable and useful products. As the occasion 
requires it, each project gives some consideration to the 
kinds and qualities of materials, the appropriate de- 
sign and construction, the processes of manufacture, the 
applied mechanics, physical sciences, and mathematics, 
and the industrial history and civics as these, relate to 
the study at hand. 

Dr. F. G. Bonser of Teachers College, Columbia 
University, has referred to these promising courses 
happily as those "following the elementary school 
period, well adapted to the interests of boys during the 
period of early adolescence when more intensive studies 

18 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

of industry will give a still greater opportunity for 
testing aptitudes, and develop greater intelligence and 
appreciation of industrial processes, problems, and re- 
lationships. The time for the beginning of this some- 
what differentiated work for boys is probably at about 
the beginning of the seventh grade. The rapid develop- 
ment of the junior-high school or intermediate school 
bids fair to see such courses well organized for seventh, 
eighth, and ninth grades with from one-third to one- 
half of the time devoted to the study of industrial pro- 
cesses, shopwork, and closely related subjects for those 
who elect such courses, the remaining time applying to 
the usual general or academic subjects for these grades. 
By providing partial differentiation in these years, and 
at the same time keeping much work in common, the 
individual interests and aptitudes of children may be 
respected and developed, and yet the democratic char- 
acter of the whole school maintained."^ 

Types of These Junior-High School Industrial-Arts 
Activities. 

The following types of eighth grade industrial- 
arts courses, which first were inaugurated three years 
ago as a part of the junior-high school program at The 
Lincoln School, N"ew York City, 2- ^ and incorporated the 
most successful and practicable features resulting from 

^Bonser. F. G. "New Types of Industrial Work in Schoolp," 
Teachers CoUege Record, May 1, 1915. Vol. XVI. 

^These statements do not account for any changes which have 
taken place since October, 1920. 

19 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

a careful study of over 300 progressive junior-high 
schools and intermediate schools in various parts of the 
country, are examples of the promising organized acti- 
vities already described in some detail for either the 
large or small school system. A minimum requirement 
of three hours weekly during each of the seventh, eighth, 
and ninth years is found to be a reasonable amount of 
time for each of the essentially required industrial arts 
units offered. 

Printing and Publishing. 
{Eighth Year.) 
Some freedom has been allowed all pupils in choos- 
ing projects to be printed. However each pupil is re- 
quired to gain certain understanding ana experience in 
composition, stone work, proof-reading and correcting, 
making-up forms, press work, distribution, and the 
other important processes typical of the job print shop. 
The thought-provoking problems, which are usually of 
a semi-conimercial nature, are an outgrowth of the 
school or individual needs. These include such work 
|is the printing of cards, programs, tickets, and straight 
matter at first; while later the artistic arrangement of 
headings, spaces, and lines is applied to the printing of 

^Note — It might weU be stated that the accepted policy of the 
whole junior-high school was then that "essentially required 
courses be given for the purpose of giving valuable contact with 
different types of world knowledge and with interesting and 
profitable activities; and that such courses serve as a basis for 
purposeful election of courses in the senior-high school: but that 
individual students be permitted to discontinue sequences of 
courses and substitute others, with the permission of their 
advisers." 

20 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

announcements, forms, booklets, school publications, 
and the like. 

This is followed by problems in color work and 
studies in modern illustrating. As the work progresses, 
the following types of information and skill are re- 
quired sufficiently to give all pupils some appreciation of 
the methods and important conditions in our printing 
trades. 

I. Composition and Proof-reading: 

1. Type case. 

2. Handling and setting type. 

3. Tools and materials. 

4. Setting and distributing straight matter. 

5. Printing terms. 

6. Setting and distributing display matter. 

7. Reading and marking proofs. 

8. Correcting type matter. 

9. Setting from manuscript. 

10. Expressing ideas in print in such a way as to 
attract attention, to stimulate thought, and, if 
possible, to produce action. 

II. Stone work: 

1. Locking-up in the chase. 

III. Press work: 

1. Making ready on the job press. 

2. Preparing paper and inks. 

3. Feeding the press. 

4. Study of presses. 

IV. Typography: 

1. Types and type-faces. 

2. Proportions, harmony, tone, and contrast. 
_ 5. Planning ^Jjd J^j^out of work. 

21 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 
V. Studies related to printing and publishing: 

1. History of printing as it relates to present-day 
practice. 

2. Making books and magazines (Harper Brothers). 

3. Making newspapers (New York Times). 

4. Relation of the school shop to the larger pro- 
ductive offices. 

5. Conditions, requirements, and possibilities in 
printing and allied trades. 

Machine Shop. 

(Eighth Yea7\) 
The possible machine-shop problems have consisted 
of machining castings and steel parts to be used in the 
construction of power machines, and also the doing of 
smaller problems such as arbors, washers, bolts, nuts, 
gear blanks, screws, bearings, bushings, pulleys, lathe 
centers, tool shanks, box caps, clamps, pipe threading 
and fitting, and various repair jobs as these are selected 
from the needs a1 the school and about the home. This 
wide range of work makes it possible for each pupil to 
have a reasonable amount of freedom in choosing pro- 
jects and problems in the different divisions of the acti- 
vity. Before the engine lathe or any other machine tool 
can be operated by the pupil without assistance, the im- 
portance of oiling the bearings, adjusting the machine 
parts for safety, fastening the work, choosing and set- 
ting the correct cutting tools, selecting the proper feeds 
and speeds, and taking the trial and finishing cuts must 
be thoroughly appreciated. During the eighth year the 

22 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

following types of information and skill are acquired 
as a basis for understanding the processes and gaining 
insight into the metal trades : 
I. Lathe work: 

1. Cylindrical turning on centers. 

a. Location and drilling of centers, grinding and 
setting of tool. 

b. Turning to definite size, using calipers, scale, 
and finer measuring instruments. 

c. Typical lathe operations. 

2. Taper turning. 

a. Calculating tapers. 

b. Method of turning. 

c. Finishing. 

3. Thread cutting. 

a. Calculating change of gears, etc. 

b. Grinding and setting treading tools. 

c. Cutting right and left hand threads. 

4. Chucking and boring. 
IL Drill press: 

1. Methods of holding work. 

2. Various uses. 

IIL Bench and floor work: 

1. Chipping, sawing and filing. 

2. Laying out, fitting and assembling. 

3. Soldering. 

4. Use of taps and dies. 

5. Tempering and grinding tools. 

6. Key seating and fitting. 

7. Babbeting and scraping boxes, etc. 
IV. Related information: 

1. Studies in elementary mechanics, mathematics, 
and short cuts as applied to practical shop prob- 
lems. 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

2. Use, design, and construction of common and 
special hand and machine tools. 

3. Methods of manufacture and commercial uses 
of iron and steel. 

4. Relation of school experiences to organization 
and production in different machine shops. 

5. Conditions, requirements, and possibilities in 
metal and allied trades. 

Related Information as a Basis for Industrial Insight and 
Guidance. 

It is now quite generally realized that the most 
urgent need for the majority of hoys from 12 to 15 
years of age is not so much for a high degree of mani- 
pulative skill in trade operations as it is for reliable 
information with which to judge the industries. Where 
the best results have been obtained, the exploratory 
shopwork plan has been paralleled by a study of real, 
productive industry rather than by a mere textbook ac- 
quaintance. There are but relatively few kinds of raw 
materials, and comparatively few principles involved in 
their manufacture. The number of great type indus- 
tries and their important processes of production also 
are small to a surprising degree, which suggests that 
these studies should follow type activities and widely 
significant operations somewhat intensively. In addition 
to studies of general industrial conditions and relation- 
ships, group excursions to local plants and investiga- 
tions of the various types of occupations as to impor- 
tance, health conditions, needs, qualifications, wages, 

24 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

opportunities, conditions of emplo3'ment, and the like 
are helping to form sound judgments relative to the 
character and possibilities of industrial callings. As 
the occasion requires it, pupils are brought in touch with 
reliable reading matter, unbiased specialists, or what- 
ever sources of information are most needed at the time. 
In some schools a simple but effective "vocational in- 
dex'^ is used advantageously to record the inferences of 
teachers and others based upon activities carried on in- 
side and outside of school, both during the attendance 
and follow-up periods. 

While these diversified activities and occupational 
studies undoubtedly are beginning the preparation of 
life work for a large number, it certainly should not be 
assumed that all pupils who are taking industrial arts 
will go into the industries. If properly organized, a 
scheme of industrial-arts education should be liberal 
enough to help those who can continue their school work 
to choose wisely their more specific courses in secondary 
and higher education, and likewise help those who find 
it necessary to leave school with a minimum amount of 
education to choose their respective occupations most 
intelligently. Therefore, it is proving desirable to have 
the work and study include a large number of industries 
and industrial processes, in order that all may have a 
rich and varied experience upon which to draw, in any 
event. 

25 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

Whenever vocational classes or cooperative courses 
exist, it often has proven more satisfactory to carry on 
as little as possible of the additional productive or 
highly specialized vs^ork in the "try-out'^ or "opportun- 
ity" shops of the intermediate school or the junior high 
school. At any rate, it is reported that a reasonable 
number of industrial plants are being visited, first- 
hand information of the proper type is being made 
available, and an attempt to make clear the existing 
relationship between the school activity and the in- 
dustry represented is undertaken seriously in a compara- 
tively large number of these schools. 

Possibilities in Courses for Educational and Vocational 
Guidance. 

Much of the criticism of the vocational guidance 
movement in this country may be attributed to the ob- 
jection to having early decisions forced upon young per- 
sons by the larger experience of teachers and counselors. 
When reduced to its lowest terms, this conception of 
guidance merely concerns itself with placement, which 
consists of finding jobs or employment for pupils. 
Although teachers are certain to realize the need for 
giving counsel and information during the junior-high 
school period, and the very nature of their positions 
will cause them consciously or unconsciously to give 
much of both, nevertheless, the experienced teachers 
fully realize their limitations in this uncertain field 

26 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

where many pitfalls are possible as a result of misdi- 
rection. On the other hand, the great need for dealing 
intelligently with the problem of an efficient choice, both 
as to self -expression and public service, suggests that the 
decision might well come as a result of the pupil's un- 
derstanding of economic facts and values. Even though 
the school fails to keep its pupils from choosing blindly 
by presenting the related information and helping them 
to interpret this in terms of the existing conditions, the 
fact remains that sooner or later most secondary school 
pupils will choose their life work. 

Several suggestive experiments have been developed 
to ascertain the benefits which may be derived from or- 
ganizing separate courses in vocational and educational 
guidance as a definite part of the junior-high school 
program. One of these courses, which offers some pro- 
mise, was introduced at The Lincoln School of Teachers 
College, New York, as an experiment in September, 
1919. At that time, it was decided to devote one period 
of each week to provide all ninth grade pupils with 
reliable information concerning the social, economic, 
and larger personal aspects of the most important life 
occupations. This course was planned to help all pupils 
who continue their school work to choose their courses 
more wisely in the senior high school, as well as in their 
higher education, and also to help those who might find 
it necessary to leave school with a minimum amount of 

27 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

education to choose their respective procedure more 
thoughtfully. 

In connection with each possible life occupation 
studied^ detailed considerations relative to the nature of 
the work, the advantages and disadvantages, the quali- 
fications and training, the possibilities, remuneration, 
and advancement were had through reliable reading 
matter, class discussions, student reports, talks by spec- 
ialists, and excursions. This organized information 
merely supplemented that which had been given in the 
other school activities by presenting all of the related 
facts that may help pupils to weigh values and choose 
their future courses and work. Aside from these voca- 
tional guidance values, this course also includes a brief 
interpretation of economic life, industrial ownership, 
labor problems, related organizations, scientific man- 
agement, supply and demand, and the development of 
our present-day producing and service groups, in order 
to give understanding and to encourage a wholesome 
attitude toward work and workers in each occupation 
studied. Such important life callings as agriculture, 
fishing, mining, food manufacturing, textiles and cloth- 
ing trades, mechanical pursuits, printing and publish- 
ing, professions and allied occupations, engineering pro- 
fessions, and commercial occupations were studied dur- 
ing the year with apparent interest and profit. 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

Problems in the Organization and Offering of Industrial 
Activities. 

The junior-high schools iu the hirge school systems 
usually have organized their industrial courses on the 
rotation plan by having separate, specialized shops to 
provide proper facilities and instruction for the various 
classes, each pupil of which elects from two to four 
different activities a year. In the latter case, each one 
of these unit courses is offered from five to seven and 
one-half hours a week during a period of either nine or 
ten weeks. On the other hand, the time allowed for the 
industrial arts in many of our upper grade curricula is 
still entirely too small for the manual aspects of the 
work and the studies of conditions and processes in the 
workaday world. Many of the small junior-high schools 
and intermediate schools also are hampered temporarily 
because of the necessary expense for suitable equipment 
and instruction. Nevertheless, more teachers in the 
smaller communities have had the courage to reorganize 
their courses on the general workshop plan already 
mentioned, thus adopting the all-around shop which is 
expanded easily from time to time.'' This procedure 
makes it possible to include other typical industrial ac- 
tivities besides woodwork, which unquestionably offers 
somewhat limited possibilities for getting concrete ex- 
periences and studying present-day industries. In some 
of these schools, where only six different units of indus- 

*Bowman, C. A. "Industrial Education for the SmaUer Com- 
munity," Manual Training Magazine, Jan., 1917, Vol. XVIII. 

29 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

trial arts are provided, the length of time devoted, to 
each unit course is extended to a semester, if the acti- 
vity and related study in question can be justified for 
this time, and the length of the periods or the number 
of periods a week is reduced to meet the local situation. 
In making this investigation it was found that the 
general aims of the industrial courses for seventh, eighth, 
and ninth year boys do not differ greatly as a result of 
the size and location of the school. On the other hand, 
the organization of each respective department has been 
determined necessarily by the size of both the commun- 
ity and the school, as a number of instructors and 
several distinct shops are used to accommodate large 
numbers of pupils while only one man or perhaps two 
men will be available to teach industrial arts in the 
smaller school. The original try-out courses taught in 
the Washington Junior-High School at Rochester, New 
York, are examples of the former type, having a sep- 
arate shop and instructor for nearly every particular 
form of industrial activity offered. This type of or- 
ganization allowed the boys to have samplings of at 
least ten weeks from each of the different shops during 
the course. Printing, cabinet-making, gas engine, sheet 
metal, pattern making, and machine work were each 
offered for ten weeks, however, this did not mean 
the same total number of hours in each shop. Print- 
ing and cabinet-making were offered during the last half 

30 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

of the seventh year, when only six hours a week were 
allowed for shopwork, while twelve hours a week were 
given in the eighth year to gas engine, sheet metal, 
pattern making, and machine work respectively. During 
the ninth year twelve hours a week were provided for 
shop work and, since this was the last year of the try-out 
period, each boy was allowed to choose one or more acti- 
vities from cabinet-making, finishing, printing, ma- 
chine shop, pattern making, sheet metal, gas engine, 
painting and decorating, plumbing, electricity, and bak- 
ing. Related industrial mathematics, elementary 
science, and drawing and design were required through- 
out the two and one-half years of the course ; seven and 
one-half hours a week being allowed for mathematics 
and drawing, while one-fourth as much time was spent 
on elementary science as on shopwork. 

It is important to note that the various kinds of in- 
dustrial activities offered in the Eochester junior-high 
schools are typical of important industries represented 
in Rochester, New York. In addition to the modified 
try-out course, each school now offers separate industrial 
technical and vocational courses. Perhaps it should be 
mentioned that the Rochester Trade School, which is 
likewise a part of the city school system, is prepared to 
give even more definite vocational education to those 
desirous of preparing for specific industrial pursuits or 
trades. This school has trade agreements with many of 
the leading shops and factories in that city. 

31 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

Modifications of this plan for the rotation of shop 
work are being practiced more or less effectively in Du- 
luth, Minnesota, in New York City, in Detroit and 
Grand Rapids, Michigan, and other cities. The shop 
work at the Ben Blewett Junior-High School in St. 
Louis, Missouri, is organized into two divisions: First, 
the seventh grade, which has compulsory activities and, 
second, the eighth and ninth grades, which have elective 
shop courses. In other words, each pupil has an oppor- 
tunity to choose between the technical arts, science, 
commercial, art, and classical courses after completing 
the essentially required industrial-arts work during his 
seventh year. More detailed statements of these courses, 
as well as reports on several units, projects, and pro- 
blems which have been successfully developed by indi- 
viduals having somewhat varied points of view and re- 
sults, appear in the following chapters. 

Improved Methods Needed in Many Industrial-Arts 
Courses."* 

In spite of the excellent results and promising out- 
look which have been reviewed, this investigation makes 
it evident that traditional practice still too largely deter- 
mines the content and method of the industrial subjects 
in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. The follow- 
ing facts, which are based on this survey relating to the 

^Edgerton. A. H. "Experimental Work in Junior-High Scliool 
Industrial-Arts," Industrial-Arts Magazine, July, 1919, Vol. VIII. 
(See also for Tentative Course of Study.) 

32 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

instruction received by 7,389 pupils in different sec- 
tions of the country, siiow tiiat large numbers of these 
courses include features which are extremely wasteful 
and consequently omit much that is useful. While a 
few of these school systems have introduced the junior- 
high school plan of organization in name only, as pre- 
viously suggested, it is reasonable to believe that the 
methods and procedure for the industrial courses in 
these 379 selected schools are, at least, equal to the in- 
struction ordinarily received in other schools having 
similar aims and purposes. 

I. Over 20 per cent of these schools report that the 
shopworh in their courses is confined to work in wood 
only. (See Table I.) 

Even though this work properly represents the divi- 
sions of the woodworking industry (carpentry, pattern- 
making, and the like), and is supplemented by studies 
of occupations through shop excursions and readings, 
it at best offers limited opportunity for gaining typical 
experiences and studying our present industrial pursuits 
and needs. It is doubtful if those courses which mainly 
tend to emphasize manipulative skill in the use of wood- 
working tools can be expected to do more than to gain 
meager responses in interests, inclinations, and capaci- 
ties, for reasons which will follow. 

II. Over 78 per cent of these schools report that 
their courses emphasize the doing of many operations or 

33 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

processes without respect for the needs and interests of 
tlieir pupils. 

Several of these courses allow the pupils to make 
worth while products^ thus allowing the manipulative 
skill to be incidental to the solution of the construction 
problems, but completely fail to allow an opportunity 
for thinking out and making plans to meet the difficul- 
ties involved in their work. The majority of these 
pupils are required to do their work in a certain pre- 
scribed way, as the chief emphasis is placed upon the 
following of directions, and very little allowance is made 
for initiative. A number of the instructors of these 
classes report that they are encouraged to do much of 
the pupils' work for them, since the success of their 
courses is frequently judged in terms of the quantity 
and quality of work which is displayed at the annual 
school exhibition. The least successful of these courses, 
however, are those which require all pupils to make 
formal exercises, models, or pieces that give consider- 
.able skill in the use of tools but offer little else of value. 
Nearly 60 per cent of the instructors admit that the re- 
pair and construction work which they are required to 
do for the school systems forces them to emphasize the 
production work needed rather than the specific needs 
and interests of the learners. 

Perhaps there is greater danger of exploiting pupils 
in industrial courses than in any of the other school sub- 

34 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

jects. This is explained by tlie insistence of some ad- 
ministrators and teacliers upon having all maintenance 
work, such as repairing and making furniture and other 
school equipment, printing school forms, and the like, 
done during the regular shop periods, regardless ot 
whether or not the pupils concerned are benefitted by 
the particular kind and amount of experience involved 
in the work which they are required to do. Where the 
doing of the work is given this undue amount of empha- 
sis, one cannot help wondering if those responsible for 
this procedure are not more concerned with the repair 
and construction work than with the educational growth 
of their pupils. At any rate, some such method as the 
following must be developed for overcoming this ex- 
tremely bad feature of tending to make the school shops 
a sort of "dumping ground^^ by selecting experiences 
which obviously have meager educational value during 
regular school hours. 

An employment bureau plan, which was introduced 
three years ago at The Lincoln School, New York City, 
affords several unique educational advantages by assist- 
ing the older pupils in finding interesting and instruc- 
tive employment about the school during out-of-class 
hours. Pupils from all classes of homes are given an 
opportunity to do certain parts of the school's work, 
such as printing school forms and announcements, 
checking and receiving pay in the lunchroom, assisting 
in the library or classroom, and repairing and construct- 

35 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 



Job Card. 

Date. 

Nature of work 

To be made for 

Date promised Extension 

Date delivered 

Pupil's name 



FIG. II. JOB CARD. 

iiig' school equipment. This work in each case is 
arranged and recorded by the pupil in duplicate form 
on the job card shown in Figure II, after which it is 
carried out under the supervision of the teacher in 
charge of the respective activity. The amount of money 
which pupils are paid for the different kinds of un- 
skilled, semi-skilled, and more highly skilled or respon- 
sible work ranges from ten cents to twenty-two cents 
an hour; however, the rate allowed in each case is deter- 
mined by the nature of the work at hand and the ability 
of the pupil chosen to do it. Although the pupils are 
free to give only a few hours a week to this special acti- 
vity, all of the junior-high school pupils participate in 
at least one or more of these profitable experiences dur- 
ing the year. 

In addition to the financial consideration, this em- 
ployment bureau plan gives pupils a better appreciation 
of actual service, and offers valuable experience in learn- 



36 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

ing to earn, without danger of exploitation. The vari- 
ous tasks not only furnish an excellent substitute for 
the responsible duties which children have in the rural 
communities, but also make it possible for boys and 
girls to use their special interests and abilities beyond 
the stages when the work can be justified as a legitimate 
part of the regular class activities. This type of em- 
ployment organization represents a relatively small in- 
vestment and is not considered a financial burden in 
any sense. It provides a satisfactory means for dispos- 
ing of certain necessary jobs which offer somewhat 
limited educational value during regular school hours, 
and it likewise allows the industrial-arts courses to em- 
phasize the needs of the learner in preference to the 
needed repair and production work which should have 
a place. 

Regardless of the size of the school system, if the 
industrial-arts activities are to continue to occupy an 
important place in the program for general education, 
these courses must be expected to share the responsibil- 
ity with the other subjects for helping adolescent boys 
to develop perspective and thinking power in connec- 
tion with real life situations. These investigations 
clearly show that such larger values as industrial intelli- 
gence and insight can not be realized alone from the 
mere doing and making of things, where skill in the 
manipulation of materials, tools and machines is the 

37 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

main emphasis. Furthermore, the psychological and 
sociological needs and interests of hoys from 12 to 15 
years of age are mainly in thought-provoking situations, 
projects, or problems, involving semi-productive or real 
production work, rather than in series of exercises, 
models, pieces, or whatever else you may care to call 
them. Because of the natural interest which boys of 
this age have in industrial or mechanical things, they 
can be required to make series of formal pieces, models, 
or exercises without much resistance; however, to thus 
take a considerable amount of time in over-emphasizing 
skill in the use of a few tools and materials means a 
great sacrifice in the larger values of the work, as al- 
ready stated. The results of much observation and 
several experiments make it obvious that any values 
which exist in such formal courses may be retained and 
given greater emphasis where the boys^ chief concern 
is the construction and solution of useful projects. The 
most valuable of these challenge boys to think out, 
study, and make definite plans to meet the difficulties 
involved in the related problems, as well as to select 
proper materials, tools, and operations; to make calcu- 
lations on stock, operations and cost when needed; and 
to carry out the other requirements which the specifi- 
cations demand. 



38 




11. Organizing and Conducting Repre- 
sentative Activities 

Improvements Result from Clear-Cut Objectives 

ANY promising results and a few striking 
inadequacies have been pointed out in con- 
nection with recent investigations of the 
seventh, eighth, and ninth grade industrial 
activities in 379 of the most progressive 
intermediate and junior-high schools in the United 
States. In studying these data, one is impressed by 
the marked improvements in content and method which 
have been realized during the past five years. TJn- 
doubetdly this progress is due partially to our greater 
tendency to insist upon having courses of study in 
industrial education programs based upon clear-cut 
needs and objectives. In judging the worth of what 
and how we teach in the shop and other related courses, 
both administrators and teachers have found it advan- 
tageous to distinguish more clearly between the aims 
and purposes of those courses which have more or less 
indirect vocational significance, but are offered mainly 
for general educational ends, and those units which 
point directly to a means of preparation for wage-earn- 
ing occupations. However, thei'e still is a wide differ- 
ence of opinion with respect to the most suitable meth- 
ods for organizing and offering the former courses, 

39 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

especially with the thought of having seventh, eighth 
and ninth year boys learn most effectively and econom- 
ically. 

Chief Reasons for Offering Try-Out Courses. 

In some respects, the various claims for the indus- 
trial arts courses might be considered as hopeful expres- 
sions of ideals rather than as representing the present 
status and conduct of this work. This is one more 
indication of the progressive spirit which is backing the 
movement in this country for democratic ideals in our 
public school systems. Notwithstanding the similarity 
noted in the chief claims, which after all differ largely 
as to the amount of emphasis given to each item, the 
achievements observed in a number of schools make it 
evident that a decided difference exists both in the con- 
ception of the claims themselves, and also as to how 
these can be realized most satisfactorily. 

In the reports from 303 schools, each of which 
gave its main reason for offering instruction in the 
industrial arts and related studies, the four leading 
claims, when collated, were found to be given the fol- 
lowing order of importance:^ 

1. Contributing to the general experience, all- 
around development, and industrial intelligence. 



^See Table II in the introductory chapter for number and per 
cent of schools which emphasized each item. 

40 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

2. Aiding in the intelligent selection of indus- 
trial occupations without encouraging early choices. 

3. Enriching the school experience of the pupil 
through concrete situations. 

4. Preparing for entrance into industrial voca- 
tions in the school and through cooperation outside. 

It is obvious that these claims give little clue to the 
actual content and method of the courses which they 
represent. 

Determining the Important Need for Courses. 

Although over 80 per cent of the 379 schools inves- 
tigated state that their industrial activities aim (1) to 
develop the pupiVs special aptitudes and capacities and 
(2) to prepare him for the demands which the future 
is going to make upon him, there is a decided range of 
opinion as to how these objectives are to be accomplish- 
ed. Many of the school authorities seriously believe 
that the success of the industrial arts instruction de- 
pends upon the extent to which the work is organized 
and offered in approximation of the processes, prob- 
lems, and conditions in the divisions of industry repre- 
sented. 

It is encouraging to observe that over 67 per cent 
of these intermediate and junior-high schools are at- 
tempting to broaden and vitalize the industrial activi- 
ties which heretofore have consisted mainly of shop 
ivorlc (often limited to benchwork in wood). The jun- 

41 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

ior-high schools of Los Angeles, California, offer a 
good illustration of this change which has taken place 
in many systems during the past two or three years. 
In this case, the shop courses, which formerly covered 
three years of woodwork, have been reorganized to give 
pupils so-called vocational exposure, along with the 
study of occupations for the purpose of enabling them 
to enter their life work with some vision of the voca- 
tions. Experience already has shown that the indus- 
trial arts or prevocational courses are an incentive for 
causing pupils to enter the senior-high school, in whicli 
case they are prepared to elect vocational or other 
courses more intelligently, and to make progress from 
the outset. 

Industrial Work as a Functional Activity. 
Because it is impossible to represent all of the var- 
ious recognized wage-earning occupations in the local 
community, a small number of the schools have con- 
cluded for the present, at least, to consider the indus- 
trial work more as an intellectual or liberal study than 
as a functional activity. The shopwork observed in sev- 
eral of these schools resembles the earlier form of man- 
ual training, which was introduced at that time as a 
mental discipline rather than as a practical subject. As 
a result, such courses are so formal and isolated that 
they apparently fail to connect up with the practical ap- 
plications of everyday life. Even the technique, which 
is emphasized in making different abstract pieces and 

42 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

exercises, does little to inculcate habits of productive 
industry, thrift, and service as is occasionally claimed. 

It unquestionably would be both impracticable and 
undesirable for any school to fully represent so great a 
variety and number of highly specialized occupational 
pursuits, as are listed for any of our cities of mixed in- 
dustries in the last Special Eeport of the United States 
Census. The expenditure could be justified neither on 
the basis of vocational efficiency nor because of educa- 
tional needs. An investigation which was conducted a 
few years ago by Dr. L. P. Ayres, of the Eussell Sage 
Foundation, in order to ascertain the facts concerning 
the conditions in 78 American city school systems, has 
some bearing on this claim that the intermediate or 
junior-high school should participate in a program for 
industrial education "that will directly prepare the 
children to enter the local industries." The facts re- 
garding the birthplace of the 13-3^ear old boys in the 
public schools of those cities, which were between 25,- 
000 and 200,000 population, show that "only one fath- 
er in six wsiS born in the city where he now lives and 
only a few more than one-half of the boys were born 
where they now live."^ Table III shows the detailed 
facts of the 22,027 cases studied by Dr. Ayres. 

On the other hand, experience of the past few years 
has demonstrated clearly that it is possible to offer well- 



''Ayres. L. P. "Some Conditions Affecting: Problems of In- 
dustrial Education in 78 American School Systems." Russell Sage 
Foundation Publication. 

43 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

organized units of typical activities, which will develop 
varying degrees of industrial intelligence and give in- 
sight into the conditions, in a number of modern indus- 
tries without the danger of over-emphasizing the limi- 
tations in localized and undesirable occupations. This 
does not mean that we should be unmindful of the local 

Table III. Facts Concerning Birthplace of 22,027 Boys 

and Their Fathers Indicate that Large Majority of 

Adults Will Not Work in Same Communities 

Where Schooling is Received. 

Boys Fathers 

Per Per 

Birthplace Number Cent Number Cent 

Same City 12,699 58 3,601 16 

Same state but not same 

city 4,233 19 5,349 24 

Other states in United 

States 3,069 14 4,364 20 

Foreign country 2,026 9 8,713 40 

Total 22,027 100 22,027 100 

needs and interests in representing and organizing in- 
dustrial-arts courses for any community. The local 
well-being of the home and community in an agricul- 
tural section, for example, demands a somewhat dif- 
ferent emphasis in its industrial work than would be 
offered to meet the needs in a city of mixed industries. 

Wide Range in Content of Industrial Courses. 

Rural industrial work, which mainly concerns it- 
self with farm projects that are carried on inside and 
outside of the school shop, represents one type of local 

44 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

interest for helping to determine the content and meth- 
od in several of the schools reporting. With few excep- 
tions^ the essentially rural communities state that not- 
able progress has been made by abandoning the absurd 
practice of basing their procedure largely upon the 
courses and methods of the larger school systems. For 
obvious reasons, the all-around or farm-workshop plan, 
already described as a solution for the industrial arts 
in the smaller community, likewise is found most suit- 
able for the limitations of these rural intermediate and 
junior-high schools.'' 

Such closely related activities as carpentry, con- 
crete construction, harness repair, forging, bench metal 
work, gas engine operation, machine assembly and re- 
pair, farm woodwork, and the like are taught by the 
local instructor, who frequently extends the opportunity 
for concrete experiences and information by cooperat- 
ing with practical men and establishments in the com- 
munity. It is evident that the needs in any one of 
tliese activities call for a diversity of dexterity and 
knowledge for understanding, for constructing, for im- 
provising and for repairing products to be used on the 
farm and in the home. The needs in farm woodwork, 
for instance, are not so much for products involving 
carefully made, close fitting joints as they are for such 
comparatively rough but useful construction as potato 



sRoehl, L. M. "A Farm Workshop," INDUSTRIAL-ARTS 
MAGAZINE, Nov., 1915, Vol. IV. 

45 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

crates, gates, brooders, hen-coops, cold frames, seed tes- 
ters, corn-cribs, garages, eveners, single-trees and vari- 
ous rebuilding and repair jobs. The schools which stress 
the home needs as a part of the farm-mechanics cour- 
ses often include the renewal and repair of such utilities 
as faucets, window and door screens, plumbing, electri- 
cal fixtures and appliances, the adjustment of window 
shades, door locks, lawn mowers, doors that bind; also, 
the making of the many other adaptations which must 
necessarily be met in rural communities. When prop- 
erly offered in terms of the school and home projects, 
the industrial activities and related studies furnish ex- 
cellent possibilities for unifying the school, the farm and 
the home life of all concerned. 

Industrial-arts courses in cities of mixed indus- 
tries are being organized, more and more, to include 
different types of representative experiences chosen 
from present-day industrial callings. Beginning in the 
seventh grade, boys in many cities of over 10,000 popu- 
lation are given short courses in a number of shop units 
as a try-out, or so-called prevocational, period. This 
system frequently gives both the pupils and teachers 
some basis for the future selection of courses and occu- 
pations. Some of the schools insist that they are ex- 
tending these opportunities in order to give special pre- 
paration for entrance into the skilled trades. For ex- 
ample, the Hackley Manual Training School, at Muske- 

46 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

gon, Mich., allows its pupils to elect vocational or trade 
school courses at the end of the seventh year, if circum- 
stances make it impossible or undesirable for boys to 
continue through the regular high school. Perhaps 
the former courses in the Lafayette Bloom Junior- 
High School, at Cincinnati, 0., give one of the best il- 
lustrations of a department which primarily aims to 
offer an earlier beginning in specific training for those 
boys who leave school without much further preparation. 
These courses are the exception, however, as a large ma- 
jority of the schools report that they are making no 
special attempt to emphasize proficiency in specific occu- 
pations as low as the seventh and eighth grades, because 
of their conviction that the industries offer little to 
boys under 16 years of age. Nevertheless, a compara- 
tively large number of schools in this group insist that 
boys can be given enough freedom in choice and suffic- 
ient variety of industrial experiences to help many in 
the selection of their life work and some in the begin- 
ning of their preparation for it. 

The most progressive of these industrial-arts cour- 
ses, which are designed, in part, to try out interests in 
order to determine likes and dislikes, and to test capa- 
cities for understanding and doing industrial and me- 
chanical work, do tend to contribute toward the greater 
vocational efficiency of the pupils during the ninth 
grade. This would seem to be the psychological and 

47 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

physiological time to place somewhat greater emphasis 
upon technique and the related technical information. 
As a result of the various try-out experiences in the sev- 
enth and eighth years, some pupils are found taking 
more extensive work in courses already started, while 
others investigate new activities or experiment with se- 
lected problems. This practice is also increasing in 
those schools which take the attitude that while a num- 
ber of the boys will not be adapted to industrial work, 
either in interest or ability, all boys should have an in- 
telligent understanding of the processes, conditions, and 
relationships in productive industry. 

General Methods in Organizing Try-Out Courses. 

In the best of these courses, each pupil partici- 
pates in a reasonable amount of work which stresses the 
atmosphere and, to some extent, the time element and 
accuracy of the commercial plant.^ Whenever the 
equipment in the school shop, for example, will not al- 
low boys to do their work by the most practical methods, 
it is made clear how this would be taken up in the 
commercial shop and that their work is being carried on 
in as practicable a manner as possible with the neces- 
sarily limited shop facilities. This and other infor- 
mation, relative to the methods used in larger produc- 
tive industries, is gained through such sources as plan- 
ned excursions, reliable reading matter, student reports. 



»Edgerton, A. H. "To What Extent Can We Justify the Use 
of Machinery in Our School Shops on the Basis of Its Efficiency ?" 
INDUSTRIAL-ARTS MAGAZINE, Nov., 1915, Vol. IV, p. 202. 

48 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

motion pictures, class discussions and talks by special- 
ists. 

As would be expected, there is some variation both 
in the kinds and in the organization of shop activities 
represented in the various school systems. The Etting- 
er plan, in New York City, for example, provides for 
the rotation of a combination of nine-week units in des- 
ignated intermediate schools, where the boys get exper- 
ience in machine work, sheet metal, printing, wood 
working, electric wiring, plumbing, drafting, garment 
design, sign painting, and bookbinding. This plan is 
so organized that a boy who has unusual ability may 
receive special training without completing the cycle. 

The Junior-high school, at Grand Rapids, Mich., 
also rotates the boys in printing, sheet metal work, au- 
tomobile construction, wood working, machine shop 
practice, electrical construction, forging, and mechani- 
cal drawing for one double period daily. This school 
undertakes to have each boy sample the eight activities 
for ten-week periods during the seventh and eighth 
years, in order that he may continue one elected activ- 
ity more intensively for the entire year. 

At School No. 47, Buffalo, N. Y., the industrial 
activities include machine shop practice, forging, sheet 
metal w^ork, pipe fitting (for the seventh grade), bench 
woodwork, plaster casts, wood turning, pattern making 
and molding, electrical work (for the eighth grade), 

49 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

carpentry, cabinet making, wood finishing, pattern mak- 
ing and foundry work, concrete construction (for the 
ninth grade), and mechanical drawing (for all grades). 
The boys in this school spend three hours or one-half of 
the school day in these try-out courses. 

There is an attempt to separate the try-out and 
technical activities from the so-called vocational work 
in the Washington Junior-High School, at Eochester, 
IST. Y. As will be explained in more detail later, the 
printing, millwork, pattern making, sheet metal work, 
painting and decorating, and mechanical drawing fac- 
ilities are used in common for both types of courses 
during separate periods, while the cabinet making, ma- 
chine, electrical, and automobile shops are reserved es- 
pecially for either purpose. 

The Thirtieth Street Junior-High School, at Los 
Angeles, California, which has already been referred 
to in this chapter, is organizing its activities "so that 
there will be little woodwork in the seventh and eighth 
grades.'* This school has organized its widely varied 
try-out courses in the seventh year "to consist of ten 
weeks of agriculture, ten weeks of mechanical drawing, 
ten weeks of typewriting, and ten weeks of printing. 
These courses are to be followed in the eighth year by 
ten weeks of sheet metal, ten weeks of electrical work, 
ten weeks of concrete work, and ten weeks of plumbing. 
It is the intention to have the ninth year courses so 

50 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

organized that the work of the previous grades may be 
worked out into vocational classes for the higher 
grades." Regarding the content of these industrial- 
arts activities, Assistant Supt. Helen S. Watson reports 
as follows : "In all of this work, the emphasis is placed 
upon the practical side. In the Boyle Heights Junior- 
High School, for example, all repairs of school furni- 
ture and locks ; making of keys ; construction of shelving, 
cupboards and tables are done by the regular classes. 
Concrete workers have built retaining walls and repair- 
ed walks, and are now constructing a pit in the machine 
room for the installation of motor and shafting. A 
lath house, including the installation of plumbing and 
the building of a fence, is now being made for the agri- 
cultural department. It is understood that at least 
one-half of the time of the older boys may be spent on 
work for the school." 

How Industrial-Arts Activities Are Conducted. 

The amount of emphasis which is given to each 
element in these and other try-out courses shows even 
greater variation than has been noted in the activi- 
ties themselves. However, a great majority of the 
least hampered intermediate and junior-high schools 
— 231 or 61 per cent of those which reported — have 
organized their industrial-arts courses so that eacJi, con- 
crete experience brings hoys in contact with information 
on some phase of the conditions and processes encount- 

51 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

ered in present-day industry and occupations, as well as 
with the materials, tools and methods of manipulation 
in the activities represented at the school. Eegardless 
of the nature of the project, problem, or job— whether 
it happened to be a division of concrete construction 
carpentry, electrical work, printing, machine shop, 
drafting, or any other industrial pursuit—each boy in 
these courses gives little or much time (approximately 
from 5 to 35 per cent of the total time allowed) to 
such types of closely-related information as the kinds 
and properties of material used; the particular form of 
design and construction needed; the methods of manu- 
facture practiced outside; and the principles and facts 
affecting the conditions and relationships under which 
workers work. Nearly all of the manual experiences, 
which naturally are made the basis of opportunity for 
giving this information to extend the hoy's industrial 
horizon, result in useful and semi-commercial products 
and service. 

Basis of Semi-Commercial Work. 
The greater part of this semi-commercial work 
(estimated as high as 95 per cent in some schools) is 
based upon the construction and repairs needed in the 
school systems. Only a few of the schools feel free to 
state that the requirements of repair or productive work 
in their systems are considered second in importance to 
the pupils' needs beyond these immediate experiences. 

52 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

Furthermore^ over two-thirds of the instructors, in the 
231 institutions mentioned above, admit that they can 
not justify the time and effort required for a large pro- 
portion of this construction and repair work, especially 
when they are ordered to deliver the products within a 
limited time. The reasons which were given most fre- 
quently by 157 individuals for their dissatisfaction with 
the over-emphasis and unregulated demands of the 
school system upon repair and maintenance construction 
work, are summarized in Table IV. It should be noted 
that the main objections are to the effect of limiting the 
industrial experiences to the manual aspects of the 
work; namely, preventing the instruction from includ- 
ing a larger understanding of the processes and condi- 
tions in the industries represented, by failure to regu- 
late these valuable experiences in order that the pupils' 
needs and interests might receive first consideration. 

Nevertheless, increasing numbers of schools are 
adding other concrete experiences besides those which 
lend to furnish the largest financial return in materially 
reducing the annual budget for repairs and production 
work. These new industrial-arts activities seem to be 
allowing a larger percentage of time for the study of 
those methods, conditions, and relationships that are 
involved in the divisions of industry which the school 
experiences represent. Although boys of this age are 
interested primarily in the various phases of the direct 

53 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 



Table IV. Each of 157 Individuals Gives Reasons 

for Dissatisfaction With Continuous Demands 

Upon Industrial-Arts Activities for Repair 

and Productive Work/ 

ITEM— Na * 

Unregulated requirements limit the amount of in- 
struction given to: 

1. Technical information for enlarging the 
understanding of tools, materials, operations, 
and principles directly related to the shopwork. 37 

2. Vocational information for illuminating 
the school experiences by giving insight into 
commercial processes and methods employed in 
economic production 28 

3. Occupational information for helping to 
appreciate and judge labor conditions, import- 
ance of work, health problems, future opportun- 
ities, quali fications and training 21 

Narrow limitations in maintenance needs of schools 

tend to: 

1. Prevent representation of proper forms 
of Industrial experiences to meet various needs 

of pupils 32 

2. Require instructors to do much of the 
planning and construction work for pupils 17 

3. Cause difficult operations to frequently 

precede the simpler ones 8 

Extended repetition cf same operations and pro- 
cesses seem to: 

1. Give too highly specialized skill for 
boys of this age • • 14 

2. Cause adolescent boys to lose interest in 
work with little variation _. 11 

3. Limit scope of acquaintance with typi- 
cal tools, machines, materials, and processes of 
manipulation 7 



^These numbers will total more than 157, as several individuals 
reported more than one reason. 

54 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

manual experience, more and more instructors have 
come to recognize the need for vitalizing the manipu- 
lative aspects of the activities by introducing thought- 
provoking situations. Both projects and problems in 
these courses include a breadth of instruction which 
stimulates thought for better understanding, insight, 
and appreciation. A few representative types of the 
directly and indirectly related information, which boys 
acquire profitably as they plan and construct products 
liaving commercial value, are listed in the first section 
of Table IV. 

Conducting Representative Industrial Courses. 
It should be explained that the following reports 
dealing with three widely varied types of successfully 
organized industrial arts courses at Hastings, Nev^ 
York, at St. Louis, Missouri, and at Rochester, New 
York, (as well as the several carefully planned and 
tried courses, units, and projects which are to appear 
in the next and last chapter of this book) were col- 
lected for the 1921 Yearbook by the Industrial Arts 
Committee^^ of the National Society for the Study of 
Education. Since it did not prove expedient for the 
Society to publish Part III of its 1921 Yearbook, 
which was to have included these suggestive contribu- 
tions, it has been recommended and urged that, if nec- 
essary, this report on experiments for developing in- 

i^The Committee appointed to coUect these successfully tried 
units -was composed of L. A. Herr, G. H. Hargitt, and A. H. 
Edgerton, Chairman. 

55 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

dustrial courses and projects to meet the needs of early- 
adolescence should be revised for publication. 

Types of Industrial Arts Conducted in Smaller Commun- 
ities — An Illustration. 

Diversified Industrial Activities at Hastings, N. 
Y.'^'^ In the seventh grade at Hastings, N. Y., concrete 
construction is taken up as the main activity. Brief 
talks are given on the manufacture of cement early 
in the course. This naturally follows the story from 
the rough rock to the finished products, as developed 
in the shop. The forms for the simple concrete pro- 
ducts involving mass construction are made from wood 
by the pupils. Some of the boys work individually on 
problems needed for the home, while others work in 
groups on larger projects, many of which are made for 
the school. 

Eunning along parallel with the construction 
work, short talks also are given on the proper methods 
of preparing the forms for concrete, the kind of lumber 
to use, etc. The ingredients required to make con- 
crete, their selection for desired mixtures, and methods 
of testing likew^ise are taken up and followed by the 
actual proportioning of materials, mixing, placing, de- 
positing, and protecting. After having completed pro- 
jects in mass construction, reinforced and hollow con- 
struction problems are attempted. It has been the aim 



"Contributed by Wm. H. Peters, Head of Industrial Arts 
Department, Hastings, N. Y. 

56 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

to have this work in the school shop of the same na- 
ture as the smaller construction work in the industry; 
but, as this is not possible in all cases with a small 
amount of equipment, trips are made occasionally to 
places where concrete construction is in operation. 
Notes are taken on the practical ways of doing this 
work on a larger scale. 

In the eighth grade at this school, sheet metal 
work is introduced. Starting with the making of a 
simple biscuit cutter from a discarded soup can, the 
boys learn the principles of soldering. They have the 
experience of cutting and folding tin and soon become 
familiar with the metal working tools. A cup is then 
made, and the method of making a flange, or turning 
the edge, is explained. Coffee pots or watering cans 
have been found to be good problems for bringing in 
riveting. The making of spouts affords splendid oppor- 
tunity for planning developments, as does the making 
of a funnel. Then after making a frying pan with a 
rolled edge from a round gallon can; each boy selects 
his projects and shows no end of interest in making up 
such problems as match boxes, lanterns, dust pans, 
stationery boxes, ash trays, and such toys as automobile 
trucks, tractors, steam rollers, locomotives, and boats. 
Figure III shows a few of these sheet metal problems. 

The material for this work during the past year 
has consisted mostly of discarded tin cans. Several 

57 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

thousand of these have been brought in by the boys. 
Aside from the pleasure and knowledge derived from 
the actual making of the tin products, perhaps the 
greatest satisfaction lies in the fact that the boys are 




FIG. III. A FEW OF THE SHEET METAL PROBLEMS V^HICH 
.. WERE ELECTED AND DEVELOPED DURING THE 
LATTER PART OF THE COURSE. 

using materials which usually are thrown away. You 
might say that this is making ^^something out of noth- 
ing^^, thus eliminating bills which would otherwise 
be incurred. In this work the boys use their own ini- 
tiative after being shown the simplest principles. Fig. 
IV shows a boy making bathroom fixtures for a doll- 
house. The combination of simplicity with the chance 
to use creative ability has proved of untold value. 
There was such a great amount of interest taken in 
this kind of work by the boys that many have asked to 
do extra work. As a result, many ingenious projects, 

58 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

some of which required a knowledge of mechanics, have 
been worked up. 

In the ninth grade course electricity is introduced. 
Sets of apparatus are made here in order to cover the 




FIG. TV. EIGHTH GRADE BOY AT HASTINGS, NEW YORK, 

MAKING BATHROOM FIXTURES FOR A DOLL HOUSE 

PROJECT IN THE SHEET METAL CLASS. 

important principles of electricity. The constructions 
are kept as simple as possible in order that the theory 
given in talks, which parallel the shopwork, may be 
clear. As a first project, a simple telegraph sounder is 
made from a scrap of wood for a base, two twenty 
penny nails for the core of the magnet, a piece of tin 

59 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

(from an old tin can), which is folded and shaped for 
the armature. The key and switch are made from 
scrap pieces of tin and wood. When two boys have 
completed these instruments, they can get great inter- 
est in setting them up to form a complete telegraph 
system between two rooms. Next a buzzer is made of 
as simple construction as the sounder already des- 
cribed. This is followed by the making of a push but- 
ton, .which is as easily constructed as the key mentioned 
above. 

Later a toy motor is introduced with good re- 
sults. The experience of adjusting and hunting elec- 
trical trouble in this problem affords enough incen- 
tive to guide boys through the principles of the motor. 
After completing these problems, they select and make 
projects which are of particular interest to them. 
Many ingenious instruments have been turned out in 
the form of shocking coils, burglar alarm, wireless sets, 
etc. The boys seem to take a great interest in these 
problems, as well as in working out different experi- 
ments on an electro board which contains a number of 
possible hook-ups. 

TYPES OF JUNIOR-HIGH SCHOOL INDUSTRIAL 

ACTIVITIES IN LARGE SYSTEMS. 
Seventh Grade Industrial Arts at the Ben Blewett Junior- 
High School, St. Louis, Mo.'' 

The shopwork at the Ben Blewett Junior-High 



"Contributed by G. H. Hargitt, in charge of industrial-arts 
Classes at St. Louis, Mo. 

60 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

School in St. Louis, Mo., is organized into two divi- 
sions: First, the seventh grade which has compulsory 
shop courses, and the eighth and ninth grades which 
are elective. After a boy has taken a year in the ele- 
mentary shop, he then has an opportunity to choose 
between the technical arts, science, commercial, art, 
and classical courses. This report will, therefore, only 
discuss the seventh grade sliopwork and study. 

This community, which is entirely residential and 
draws from a class of students whose parents, to a 
large extent, will encourage higher education, presents 
a problem which is quite different and difficult. Most 
of these children live in apartment houses, where they 
are deprived of the privileges of tinkering and experi- 
menting in shops of their own. It is believed that all 
boys want or should have this experience, so for this 
reason, we are giving them this one big chance of their 
school career for guided experimenting. 

We try to make a cycle of the material with which 
they work, as much as possible, by encouraging that 
they first of all use wood as their medium of construc- 
tion. This is followed by the use of sheet metal and 
soldering. Casting of soft metal in die-casting molds 
follows this, and finally they work in concrete and in 
electricity. We hope to have each and every boy come 
in contact with all of these different media of construc- 
tion some time during his work in the seventh grade 

61 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

The pupil, too, has the actual shop experience, 
with the added responsibilities of having complete 
charge of the issuance of tools in the tool room by 
means of a check system. He is made to feel that he 
is responsible for the tools and that he should see that 
they come back to the tool racks in as good condition 
as when they were given out. These are just further 
steps of the aim for making the boy feel that he is a 
part of the governing body, as well as the one to be 
subject to rule and order. 

Wherever possible, it is the endeavor to have the 
work so arranged that the boys make use of their pro- 
jects to help them pass their merit badge tests for the 
scout organizations and for clubs. All of these things 
solicit the closer cooperation of boys by making them 
feel that there is a connection between all of these ac- 
tivities. A few excellent projects of this type are the 
chemistry sets, the heliograph, the telegraph set, the 
wireless, the naturalist^s box, the level, and the chart 
board, having the compass for charting the hikes made 
by the club. 

Another project, which proved its worth last 
spring, was the organization of a Yacht Club previous 
to the races between the Shamrock and the Resolute. 
We studied the merits of the many types of sailing 
craft with reference to speed and ability to weather a 
storm. The boys became so enthused that they even 

62 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

conducted a few races among themselves and then dis- 
cussed the merits and faults of the various boats. 

The organizing of a Eailroad Club, which ran 
through the whole of last year, was the most successful 
of our projects, not so much from the skill and techni- 
que of the project as from the vast amount of infor- 
mation and satisfaction which the boys derived. We 
elected the officers of the Railroad Corporation with its 
executive board, and this in turn had its subdivisions. 
There was a superintendent of road construction; a 
superintendent of block signals; one of the construc- 
tion of cars; one for the engines; and one for the 
bridges. They met and decided on the scale upon 
which to build the model railroad. A scale of one- 
half inch to the foot was agreed upon. They then pro- 
ceeded to choose ■ the helpers and assistants from the 
remainder of the club members and began on the devel- 
opment of the drawings and plans. A book of plans 
and specifications, published by the Railroad Builders' 
Supply Companies, was procured and used as a guide. 
The boys made several trips to the railroad yards, 
switches, bridges, and signaling towers. After watch- 
ing the different operations of the parts in which they 
were interested, they brought information to the club 
which aided them in the construction of their projects. 
The benefits derived from these studies were not local 
entirely, as the boys in their enthusiasm solicited the 

63 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

interest and curiosity of the parents to the extent that 
many of them visited the meetings of the club and con- 
tributed of their knowledge and skill to aid in the con- 
struction of the main project. 

Industrial Department of the Washington Junior-High 
School, Rochester, N. Y.'' 

At Rochester, N. Y., the Washington Junior-High 
School gives three types of industrial courses, which 
are called general try-out, industrial technical, and 
vocational. The general try-out course is for boys in 
the 7A grade, since a general requirement in this grade 
is that every boy shall have one period of shopwork a 
day. The aim of this work is to give the boy a general 
idea of what industrial work is like, so that he will be 
able to make a more intelligent choice of his course 
when he enters the 8B grade. The industrial technical 
course fulfills a double purpose. It is both a prevoca- 
tional training period and a general industrial infor- 
mation course. This course is elective for boys in the 
8B grade or above, and it differs from the regular aca- 
demic "foreign language" course only in the fact that 
one period a day of shopwork is substituted for the 
foreign language. The boys spend one term in a cer- 
tain shop and then change to a different shop for the 
next term, so that at graduation from the Junior-High 



^''Contributed by R. Parkhill, vocational coordinator, Roch- 
ester, N. Y. 

64 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

School they have a definite knowledge of at least five 
different kinds of industrial work. This course is pre- 
paratory for the regular high school and a "cross-over' 
may be made to other courses at any stage without loss 
of time. 

The aim of the Vocational Course is primarily 
trade training, but, after completing a two years' course 
in this department, a boy may enter the Rochester Shop 
or Trade School and continue his work for three years, 
at the end of which time he obtains the State Indus- 
trial High School Diploma. A boy may enter this 
course at any time during the Junior-High School at- 
tendance provided he is over 14 years of age. Upon 
entrance, the boy and his parents choose the trade 
which he wishes to follow. He is then given a ten 
weeks' intensive try-out period in that particular trade. 
If he shows ability and, in the judgment of the in- 
structor, will "make good", he continues in that kind 
of work for two years. If, on the other hand, the in- 
structor believes that the boy is unfitted for the partic- 
ular trade which he has chosen, he is then given an- 
other intensive try out in some other type of work. 
This try-out scheme is carried on until the boy finds 
his niche or until it is definitely decided that he is by 
nature unfitted for industrial trade work. This course 
varies greatly from the industrial technical one in that 
boys do not carry on the regular junior-high school 

G5 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

work. The day is divided into three hours of shop- 
work, one hour and a half of bookwork, including 
English, history, civics, and hygiene, 45 minutes of 
related shop mathematics, and 45 minutes of related 
mechanical drawing. It should be understood that the 
boys in this course are those who intend to drop out of 
school at 16, or before, and who desire an intensive 
trade training before going to work. Last spring over 
70 per cent of the boys in this department were beyond 
the legal age for leaving school, and it is safe to say 
that nearly all of them would have left had they not 
been receiving definite trade training. 

In order to care for these varying types of shop- 
work, the organization of the industrial department is 
somewhat complicated. Nine shops with eleven teach- 
ers now take care of all shop work. . This is accomp- 
lished by using certain shops for vocational work half 
a day and for try-out work the remainder of the day. 
In addition to the shop teachers, the industrial depart- 
ment has two instructors for mechanical drawing and 
one for shop mathematics. At the present time, ma- 
chine shop, electricity, and automobile repair are 
strictly vocational shops, while printing, mill work, 
pattern-making, sheet metal work, and painting and 
decorating are vocational only one-half day and then 
used for technical and try-out work. One teacher in 
mechanical drawing is handling vocational classes only, 

66 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

while another is giving part vocational and pari try- 
out dravring. The teachers of shop mathematics and 
vocational bookwork are handling strictly vocational 
groups. In no case are vocational boys and try-out 
boys combined in the same class. 

The actual shopwork given in both try-out and 
vocational classes is done on standard practice ma- 
chines and, so far as possible, parallels actual factory 
conditions of the better type. All work given is prac- 
tical and usually of a productive nature. Production, 
however, takes a subordinate position, as it is never 
allowed to interfere with the all-round development of 
the boy. The industrial department in the school, after 
all, is essentially a school ratlier than a factory. 




III. Methods of Offering Courses and 
Projects 

Problems in Respecting Individual Differences 

LAKGE number of perplexing problems 
confront those who conscientiously under- 
take to select^ organize, and offer repre- 
sentative industrial activities designed to 
meet the needs of early adolescence. There 
always will be various difficulties which are involved in 
properly reflecting and interpreting the many inherent 
conditions and relationships in modern productive in- 
dustry. But, in order to realize ^successful instruction 
in the industrial activities represented, the psycholog- 
ical and physiological growth of the pupils must be 
recognized and respected during this all-important per- 
iod of development. Many useful methods have been 
devised for selecting and organizing the various try-out 
or exploratory types of industrial courses, in order to 
help hoys prepare themselves for the demands of many- 
sided service, as well as for intelligent citizenship. 
These helpful suggestions were reported in the pre- 
ceding pages dealing with the investigation of 379 
progressive intermediate and junior-high schools, which 
are located in 21 different states. 

This investigation and the majority of the recent 
school surveys make it evident that the influence of 
traditional practices, rather than the actual needs of our 
new and rapidly changing social conditions, still deter- 

68 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

mines too largely the kind and amount of emphasis 
which the industrial experiences receive in much of 
tlie upper grade curricula. The tendency to covet this 
familiar conception of education, which has the impart- 
ing and mastery of that great store of knowledge in 
school textbooks as its aim or purpose, undoubtedly is 
an inheritance from those early days before the sum 
total of the things worth knowing had increased many 
hundredfold. We have an abundance of early and recent 
records which share this attitude toward education with 
Oliver Goldsmith, who in his writings modestly ex- 
pressed a yearning "to show'^ his "book-learned skill.'' 
Despite the many evidences of this inheritance which 
still exist in our American school S3^stems, it is obvious 
that the growing demand for education today is not so 
much for the mere accumulation of a mass of facts as it 
is for the ability to reason from facts and to learn where 
to find valuable information when needed. At any rate, 
our present difficulties in meeting the needs and re- 
specting the interests of seventh, eighth, and ninth year 
boys can not be solved satisfactorily unless a reasonable 
amount of time is allowed for giving instruction in a 
fairly wide range of profitable shop experiences and the 
wealth of related information involved. 

Industrial-Arts Instruction and Characteristics of Early 
Adolescence. 

Much has been said and written by G. Stanley Hall 

and other students of psychology regarding the charac- 

69 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

teristics of early adolescence, but a surprisingly small 
amount of suggestive material is available, as yet, for 
aiding those responsible for making the practical appli- 
cations which are so essential to efficient industrial arts 
instruction. The need for adapting the methods of 
teaching the industrial activities to the peculiar char- 
acteristics of boys from 12 to 15 years of age is ol)vious 
to all close observers. While the nature of the instruc- 
tion during this period will be determined partially by 
the variable types of activity represented in the differ- 
ent schools, nevertheless, it is now recognized that the 
most effective results can be realized only when the 
methods are flexible enough to provide for the individ- 
ual differences, as well as for the varying needs of the 
differentiated groups. 

The greater part of the schools that reported on 
this phase of their instruction expressed some need for 
representing a variety of industrial pursuits so tliat the 
experiences will be well adapted to the problems of re- 
vealing capacities and developing special interests arud 
powers, which are in keeping with the general aims and 
purposes of their respective school organizations. Sev- 
eral even insist that this cannot be accomplished fully 
unless allowance is made for freedom in choice and for 
individual experimentation. Others place the main em- 
phasis upon such methods for supplementing the school 
activities as excursions to study the larger construc- 
tions in productive industry, which they believe will do 

70 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

most in helping boys of early adolescence to discover the 
value of their inclinations, either in positive or negative 
ways. Not only do some of the schools provide oppor- 
tunity for each boy to try out, discover, and develop any 
special ability for doing and managing industrial work, 
but they also furnish information for maturing the 
pupiFs Judgment of industrial problems and relation- 
ships. The reports indicate tbat the best results have been 
gained by interpreting that valuable directly and in- 
directly related industrial knowledge which is an out- 
growth of the manipulative aspects of shop experience. 
These rapidly developing courses thus attempt to make 
provision for constructive thinking, as well as to give 
contact with typical materials, tools, processes, and shop 
organization. The psychological foundation for this 
procedure is sound, as miicli of the educational value in 
these industrial experiences will come from the various 
hahits, attitudes, and appreciations established in meet- 
ing both the simple and complex situations which arise 
with the proper responses. 

Relation of Likes and Dislikes to Abilities and Inabilities. 

The likes and dislikes which are fostered by l)oys of 
this age, as well as their correspondent relation to abil- 
ities and inabilities, have an important bearing on the 
methods of instruction given in the industrial-arts ac- 
tivities. A few years ago. Dr. Edward L. Thorndike of 
Columbia University measured the permanence in the 

71 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

interests of one hundred individuals, and also the re- 
semblance between interest in the upper grades and ca- 
pacity in the college period, with the following conclu- 
sions: "These facts unanimously witness to the im- 
portance of early interests. They are shown to be far 
from fickle and evanescent. On the contrary, the order 
of interests at twenty shows six-tenths of perfect re- 
semblance to the order from eleven to fourteen, and has 
changed therefrom little more than the order of abilities 
has changed. It would indeed be hard to find any fea- 
ture of a human being which was a much more perman- 
ent fact of his nature than his relative degrees of inter- 
est in different lines of thought and action. Interests 
are also shown to be symptomatic, to a very great extent, 
of present and future capacity or ability. Either be- 
cause one likes what he can do well, or because one gives 
zeal and effort to what he likes, or because interest and 
ability are both symptoms of some fundamental feature 
of the individual's original nature, or because of the 
combined action of all three of these factors, interest 
and ability are bound very close together. The bond is 
so close that either may be used as a symptom for the 
other almost as weir as for itself."^* 

Successes and Failures Reveal Aptitudes and Abilities. 

Although some promising psychological devices and 
tests have been developed for selecting persons for spe- 



"Thorndike, E. L. "The Permanence of Interests and Their 
Relation to Abilities," Popular Science Monthly, November, 1912. 

72 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

cific occupations, there is no better method in use at 
presejit for discovering the boy's capacity for each type 
of industrial experience represented in the school work- 
shop than to observe the degree of success and failure as 
he develops each division of the work and study. A 
suggestive experiment also has been conducted with 24 
apprenticed boys, who ranged in age from 12 to 17 
years, in order to ascertain whether or not those using 
hand tools in a systematic and workmanlike manner in 
one division of industry can do tasks of equal difficulty 
in other industrial pursuits with about the same facility. 
"It was discovered, beyond a doubt, that those who were 
most systematic and workmanlike in the making of 
working drawings and wooden patterns with hand tools 
likewise were most successful during their first six 
months in the machine shop, blacksmith shop, foundry, 
boiler shop, pipe and sheet metal shop, or wood shop, 
where they issued, accounted for and used hand tools."^^ 
The results of this experiment, which were based upon 
the individual judgments of several instructors and me- 
chanics, suggest that estimations of capacity do not dif- 
fer very widely when made by persons who understand 
boys and the industrial activities in question. And when 
aptitudes and abilities have been determined even ten- 
tatively, these can be tried out and developed sufficiently 
to aid in educational and vocational guidance as the try- 

"Edgrerton. A. H.. "Diversified Industrial Activities as a 
Means of Educational and Vocational Guidance for Seventh, 
Eigrhth. and Ninth Year Boys," Industrial-Arts Magazine, October, 
1917, Vol. VI, pp. 390-392. 

73 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

out courses progress in difficulty. In this way, individ- 
ual interests, inclinations, and capacities are not only 
revealed but are also continually checked and developed 
as the activities become more intensive. 

Methods of Offering Industrial-Arts Courses and Projects. 

Because of the limited time available (six to twelve 
weeks in a large proportion of the school systems investi- 
gated), there is a tendency for most of these courses to 
include definite types of work to be done by all pupils. 
However, this does not necessarily mean that all pupilg 
must develop the same problems and projects, or com- 
plete the minimum requirements in one kind of activitv 
before taking up work in another. Some of the indus- 
trial departments even allow pupils upon entering new 
types of work, to choose between several introductory; 
problems at hand, or to substitute work of equal diffi- 
culty. This also is the practice of a number of schools 
in connection with outside projects, after the boys have 
facility for doing a satisfactory grade of workmanship, 
In addition to the individual projects and problems, 
opportunity also is given in a number of the schools for 
trying out qualities of leadership and cooperation iu 
managing construction work and groups of workers. 
While the student-foreman organization is the plan 
ordinarily employed to promote this form of group ac- 
tivity, there seems to be very little uniformity at present 

74 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

either in the scheme of organizing or the method of con- 
ducting this promising type of work. 

The project method of learning,^^ which has re- 
ceived such wide interpretation and puhlicity during the 
past few yearSj is favored in principle hy over 90 per 
cent of the industrial-arts teachers in 303 of the inter- 
mediate and junior-high schools studied. As would be 
expected, different degrees of emphasis are given to the 
relative importance and desirability of having the pur- 
posing and planning of the projects done by the boys, 
especially in the seventh and eighth grades. A few of 
the instructors still require the boys to work largely 
from specifications and to do their work in a certain pre- 
scribed way, thus allowing little opportunity for each 
pupil to set up purposes or objectives and to develop 
plans for meeting the difficulties in their execution and 
for solving the problems to get results. However, the 
great majority of these instructors are attempting to im- 
prove upon this traditional method, which undoubtedly 
has robbed many boys of the larger values in the educa- 
tional process by over-emphasizing both the following of 
directions and manipulative skill in the tool processes. 
Although the importance of skill and dexterity is recog- 
nized by those who have adopted the project-problem 
method of procedure, it is insisted that a proper amount 



i^Kilpatrick, Wm. H. : Teachers CoUege Record. Columbia 
Fniversity. Vol. 21. pp. 319-335; and Snedden. David: School and 
Society, Vol. 4, pp. 419-423. 

75 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

of technique can be realized and vitalized through pro- 
fitable experiences which stimulate thinking and reason- 
ing, as well as industry. 

This method of teaching requires the instructor 
to analyze, simplify, and adapt subject matter to aid 
pupils in securing suitable information to meet the 
somewhat varied situations which arise in their con- 
struction problems. In addition to the necessary tech- 
nical information, which aids pupils in understanding 
the methods and processes involved in their work, a part 
of the educational value undoubtedly comes from ob- 
serving tools in use, samples and pictures of commercial 
products, projects in various stages of completion, 
charts of industry, and the like. It also is found desir- 
able to have an abundance of illustrated, descriptive ma- 
terial always available for the purpose of helping hoys 
to understand and appreciate economic products, allied 
occupations, and vital relationships in each phase of in- 
dustry sampled. When planned carefully, such devices 
as excursions, motion pictures, class discussions, student 
reports, talks by specialists, and class or group demon- 
strations gain the interest and offer possibilities in fur- 
thering achievement and success. 

The instructor sometimes finds it advantageous to 
resort to shop tricks and kinks, in order to form the de- 
sired oonds in the teaching process. In demonstrating 

76 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

the proper uses of certain tools^ for example, he might 
get the best results in determining habits and attitudes 
by showing their incorrect as well as their correct uses, 
in order that the bo3^s may thoroughly appreciate the 
possible difficulties in the work provided they do not use 
the tools correctly. The results of experiments to as- 
certain the best methods for such work show that where 
boys are made conscious of the trouble which may be ex- 
perienced or avoided, by using tools either incorrectly or 
correctly, there are few that do not exercise care to save 
themselves unnecessary waste in time and energy. 
"There is a tendency for teachers to depend too much 
upon verbal explanations, because of the convenience of 
words and the immediate economy of time that results 
from their use. If words will give the desired clear- 
ness, use them by all means; but, if nothing more than 
an inadequate notion will result from such explanation, 
the teacher has made a poor choice to get results."^' 
Regardless of which of these methods are chosen for 
offering a specific unit of industrial arts instruction, it 
is obvious that an unnecessary waste of time and effort 
is certain to result from forming wrong habits, inac- 
curacy, or forming no definite habits at all in the work 
and study covered. 



"Edgerton. A. H. "Experimental Work in the School Shop 
as a Means of Industrial Efficiency," Industrial-Arts Magazine, 
April, 1915, Vol. Ill, pp. 161-163. 

77 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

SUCCESSFULLY TRIED UNIT COURSES IN 
LARGE AND SMALL SYSTEMS. 

. Eighth Grade Prevocational or Aptitude Courses."* 

In the eighth grade at the Ethical Culture School^ 
New York City, a plan has been adopted for offering- 
three semi-elective courses which aim to be prevoca- 
tional or aptitude courses. These courses are known 
as mechanical, printing, and art-crafts. 

They are considered semi-elective because their 
election is determined by the cooperative considerations 
of the pupil, his teachers, and his parents and are based 
partly on his records in the arts courses. The courses 
are prevocational or aptitude courses in the sense that 
they are intended to serve as experiences that may help 
the students find or verify so much regarding their in- 
terests and aptitudes as appears desirable, in order to 
start some thought of high school courses of study and 
prospective careers. For example, the mechanical 
course is planned for those (1) having some interest in 
and liking for machinery and a desire to study and ex- 
periment along this line; (2) showing some aptitude 
for mechanical problems and construction; (3) desiring 
to find out whether they have or have not any real and 
well founded liking and aptitude for mechanical things. 

An appreciation of what is fine and admirable in 
the art and science of machinery is one aim. The ac- 
quisition of a definite body of technical practices and 

"Contributed by Arthur W. Richards. Director of Manual 
Arts, Ethical Culture School, New York City. 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

knowledge of elementary metal working processes, tools, 
and materials is also intended. This course consists of 
Q. study of the design, operation, mechanics, and con- 
struction of some good and industrially important me- 
chanical project such as the steam engine. The general 
nature of the content, the organization, and the methods 
of instruction in this course are briefly as follows : 

Instruction cards, charts, and models used are: 
1. Steam engine working chart. 
2.. Gas-auto engine working chart. 

3. Operating steam engine, reciprocating and turbine. 

4. Operating hot air engine. 

Outside study assigned on these special topics with speci- 
fic references given for each includes: 

1. How the steam engine works. 

2. Valves. 

3. Boilers, types, flash, everyday engineering. 

4. Types of steam engines. 
Excursions made are: 

1. To 59th Street or other power stations. 
Social content studies involve: 

1. History of steam engine and inventors as voca- 
cational inspirational matter. 

2. The industrial and social importance of the steam 
engine. 

3. Other power engines and the future of steam 
engines. 

4. Vocations based on mechanical work interest. 
Organization plan includes: 

1. Class project to consist of a lot of engines which 
are carried to point of assembling. Individual stu- 
dents are to assemble, adjust, and finish one or 
two engines from the finished parts. 

2. Individuals (1) to be assigned lot part jobs, (2) 
given problems to solve, (3) assigned duties 
necessary to advance the project. 

Methods of personal instruction are: 

1. To be on an individual problem or task basis. 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

2. To have teacher's demonstration on new, unknown 
processes made largely to individuals, and class 
lectures to be very short. 

3. To allow pupil instruction to other pupils as the 
jobs are transferred. 

Cabinet Making Organized on a Useful and Productive 
Basis.^^ 

With the opening of the Jefferson Junior-High 
School at Rochester, New York, last February, certain 
shops in the industrial-arts department were used dur- 
ing half of each day for specific trade w^ork, while the 
other half day was reserved for the general industrial 
arts work. One of the shops thus dividing its time is 
the cabinet-making shop. This shop was equipped with 
individual motor-driven machines of the most modern 
type, in order to do a high grade of productive work. 
The industrial-arts courses were organized around cer- 
tain well analyzed projects, which involved the principal 
machine and hand woodworking processes and opera- 
tions in their construction. All work of both classes 
was done on group projects. The shop was organized 
and conducted much like a factory, with a superintend- 
ent and foreman and the work routed through on a pro- 
duction plan. Each boy received a daily assignment to 
a job or a machine but no boy individually completed a 
whole project. That is, the principle of the division of 
labor was applied but it was not carried to the point of 
exploitation, as none of the boys were kept upon a par- 



"Contributed by Harmon B. Wood, Instructor at Jefferson 
Junior-High School, Rochester. New York. 

80 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

ticuiar job longer than was necessary in order for them 
to become thoroughly proficient in understanding and 
doing the work involved. There was always the finest 
kind of interest in the work on the part of the groups. 

During the half year about one-fifth of the shop 
time was spent in oral group instruction on matters of 
trade theory and science, as well as in discussions of the 
problems which had arisen in the shop. 

The writer believes that this method of organizing 
and conducting a school shop maintains a better inter- 
est, gets more and better work done, and develops a finer 
spirit than can be done under the individual, complete- 
project plan, without sacrificing anything in the way of 
real instruction. In addition, the shop output is im- 
mensely increased. During the last half of last year 
the output of this shop included twelve teachers' desks, 
36 drawing tables, thirty pedestals, sixty flag standards, 
twelve dining-room tables, eight library tables, five 40- 
drawer cabinets, two hundred drawers for the sewing 
classes, one flag case, two medicine cabinets, and one 
speaker's table. 

Practical Course in Electricity."" 
The course in Electricity offered in the Duluth 
junior-high schools was begun in 1917. It is presented 
in the eighth grade for one semester as a part of the sys- 
tem of rotating various subjects in the seventh and 



^^Contributed by James A. Starkweather, Assistant Superin- 
tendent of Schools. Duluth. Minnesota. 

81 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

eighth grades for the so-called prevocational groups. 
The buildings had very little equipment to begin with. 
Practically all of the wiring for circuits and for the set- 
ting up of the instruments and switch boards has been 
done by the boys in the classes. Some of the equipment 
has been made by the students. Some has been pur- 
chased through the junk-man^ and the necessary repairs 
have been made by the boys. The expense of these shops 
compared to the amount of equipment found in them 
is relatively very low. 

This course has been prepared in units, each unit 
representing a certain particular branch of the subject. 
These units have been placed on a chart which shows the 
correlation between electricity and the other subjects 
which the students take at the same time. It indicates 
the teaching units, the shop and laboratory work, the 
electrical theory, the related science, the drawing and 
sketching, the mathematics, the spelling of terms used 
in the study, and something of the history of the inven- 
tions and discoveries. 

There has been no subject offered in the Duluth 
junior-high schools which has had a more absorbing in- 
terest for the boys. Students who have shown excep- 
tional interest and ability in the subject have, on the re- 
commendation of the teacher and consultation with the 
principal, been allowed to take on an advanced course in 

82 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

this subject in the ninth year. In cases where these boys 
have been compelled to go to work early, and there have 
been several such cases, they have secured work in the 
electrical trade at good wages. One particular instance 
is illustrative of this point. C. E., who was a student 
in the eighth grade, was rather a bright boy, but, on ac- 
count of the economic conditions in his home life, he 
found it necessary to go to work. He was an excellent 
student in electricity. With some little assistance, he 
was encouraged to remain through the ninth grade and 
continue his course while taking the other subjects. At 
the end of the ninth year he left school and immediately 
entered the employ of an electrical firm at good wages. 
He is now occupying a responsible position in one of 
the leading electrical firms in Duluth, at a salary better 
than that which his teacher is receiving. He had pre- 
viously been rolling barrels in a lime kiln after school. 

Several other boys who have completed high school 
have continued their work in science due to the iiiterest 
aroused in the electricity course. Many of these boys 
are entering the university in the various fields of en- 
gineering. This would not be remarkable were it not 
for the fact that electricity furnished the interest and 
enthusiasm for keeping these boys in school during the 
period of adolescence and tided them over the discourag- 
ing time of failures in English and algebra. 

83 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 
Electrical Construction and Repair.-' 

The course in electrical construction at the Garfield 
junior-high school, Eichmond, Indiana, had been carried 
on previously in lecture form almost entirely. The re- 
sults were not quite what were wished and, therefore, we 
began casting about for a plan which would interest the 
boys more than this course already had done. A very 
limited equipment prohibited us from allowing the boys 
to experiment with the usual delicate apparatus about 
the shop, but yet we believed that the boys of junior- 
high school age almost demanded construction work 
which they could do for themselves. To use what we 
had on hand would have meant that quite soon every 
piece of apparatus would have been taken apart, with the 
result that there would then be but a few parts in work- 
ing order. 

A way presented itself soon after school started, 
when a boy brought a disabled electric train to school 
and asked, to have it fixed. He was told to choose some 
boy from the class to help him and was then given per- 
mission to work on the engine during the class period. 
Other boys in the class who saw the two experimenting 
and working together complained of their lot. Some 
even asked why they must sit and listen to lectures while 
two of their number were allowed to work on real prob- 
lems. They were told also to bring in some work which 



^^Contributed by Walter B. MiUer. Instructor at Garfield 
Junior-High School, Richmond, Indiana. 

84 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

needed repairing and that they, too, might then enjoy 
those same privileges. On the next day, the shop was 
transformed from a stiff electrical lahoratory, where 
long lectures drove the boys to hating school, to a prac- 
tical electrical workshop, where groups of interested 
boys, with heads together, worked out the repairs for 
broken toys which had been accumulated over night from 
cellars and attics about the town. Of course, it is need- 
less to state that we continued to work along that line 
for the rest of the term. As the repairing of toys played 
out soon after Christmas, we asked the boys for broken 
electric irons, vaccuum sweepers, etc. For some time 
the patrons of the school hesitated before entrusting the 
boys with their household appliances, but finally we won 
them over and were kept busy calling for and returning 
their goods. Unless some new part had to be bought, 
we charged nothing for our work, and even put a guaran- 
tee on it, which was something the local electric shops 
had not done. We kept account of the work, as the repairs 
were made, and the cash value of the whole year's work 
would have been a little over five hundred dollars, pro- 
vided we had charged the regular prices. 

A¥e usually had enough repairing to do to supply 
every boy with some work. Each class was considered 
as a separate unit or shift. Each boy who was entrusted 
with a job was given a helper and held responsible for 

85 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

both job and helper. Over a group of three or four of 
these workmen was placed a foreman, whose duty it was 
to help the boys out of difficulties and instruct them ac- 
cording to the orders of the general foreman, who was in 
charge of the whole class. The leaders soon began to 
show themselves and, after many adjustments, were 
placed where they could help and learn most. They 
usually held foremanship positions because of their will- 
ingness to help the boys on jobs which gave them trouble. 
When the classes began, the general foreman would have 
received his instructions from the teacher and would 
have told the tool-room man what new problems had 
been brought to the shop, to whom to give them, where 
to find any new tools that might be needed, and also 
would have announced the names of those who were to 
be the foremen for the day. 

The work was quite successful from the standpoint 
of interest, as each boy had brought something from his 
home or from the neighbors and had actually repaired 
some machine or appliance concerning which he had 
known but little before. It should also be stated that 
cooperation with the school wood shop made it possible 
for the boys to wire the lamps which they had made. 
One proof of the. interest was the landslide of business 
in electric toys, wireless and telegraph instruments, etc., 
at the local electrical shops. 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

SUGGESTIVE TYPES OF INDUSTRIAL-ARTS 

PROJECTS AND PROBLEMS. 

The Doll House as a School Project.'^ 

In the Hastings, N. Y., Schools there was need for 
a doll house in the kindergarten room. This furnished 
a problem which was taken up as a school project. Its 
construction required many of the different processes 
and materials that are necessary in the construction of 
a home. Nothing is gained if a project presents prob- 
lems which are too simple or too difficult; or, in other 
words, if it contains no real problems at all as far as the 
pupils are concerned. For this reason, in planning this 
project, the physiological and mental ages of the pupils 
were considered and the work was divided accordingly. 
The scheme of work followed was as representative as 
possible of the actual construction of a house in the field. 

It was a "community" project which furnished 
work of a practical nature and developed an appreciation 
of cooperation. It gave the pupils an opportunity to use 
their constructive instincts and capacities in a beneficial 
manner. It helped them to get the habit of planning to 
meet their own needs and assisted in making them 
"handy" about the home and elsewhere, as needs arise. 
Even though the work was divided among the pupils to 
meet their capacities, as far as the actual doing of things 
was concerned, they were always in touch with the other 

"Contributed by "Wm. H. Peters, in charge of industrial arts. 
Hastings, New York. 

87 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

processes going on through observation and discussion. 
Thus they received instruction in the industries from 
which man gains his material possessions and studied the 
industries for the sake of a better perspective on man's 
achievements in controlling the production, distribution, 
and consumption of the things which constitute his ma- 
terial wealth. 

Method of Procedure. This real desire for a doll 
house in the kindergarten room suggested the idea of 
drawing a few rough sketches in the way of explaining 
what was wanted. From these sketches and a few neces- 
sary suggestions, two boys from the mechanical drawing 
class took the responsibility of the architects, and as a 
part of their work in the class completed, after much 
designing, plans for the house. These plans consisted 
of scale drawings of the front, side, and rear elevations 
for the first and second floors. As in an architect's of- 
fice, tracings were made from these drawings and finally 
each boy in the class made several blueprints from them, 
so several sets of plans were completed. The methods 
used in an architect's office were taken up and a study 
of the vocation was made, thus giving the boys an insight 
into the field of drawing. Specifications were then 
drawn up by the architects and sets of these were type- 
written by the commercial class. 

After these plans and specifications were first 
checked up by the eventual owner, they were given to 
the industrial-arts department, which had agreed to take 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

the general contract. Two boys from the advanced class 
assumed the responsibility of general contractors. Thev 
were checked up by the architects, who saw that the plans 
and specifications were being fulfilled. They, therefore, 




FIGURE V. 

Several Gi-oup and Individual Projects Were Involved in the 

Planning, Construction and Furnishing of This 

Doll House for the Kindergarten. 

kept in touch with each part of the construction and 
learned in a practical way the "why" of doing the vari- 
ous things involved in constructing the doll house 
shown in Figure V. 

There was no real masonry work to be done, as it 
was decided not practical in the construction of a doll 
house; however, the masonry was not neglected, as the 
boys felt the need for it and suggested many schemes to 

89 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 





FIGURES VI AND VII. 

The Upper and Lower Illustrations Show an Individual Project 

in Installing Electric Lights and a Group Project 

in Painting and Finishing. 

90 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

work it out. This led to a discussion of the many 
methods of building foundations and chimneys. The 
proper proportions for mixing the ingredients for a con- 
crete floor were taken up and the boys made use of their 
previous study of concrete, which had consisted of a 
study from the rough rock from which the cement is 
manufactured to the finislied product, the different 
methods of mixing with aggregates in their proper pro- 
portions, and the making of such problems as bird 
houses, flower boxes, etc., which involved reinforced as 
well as mass construction. In this way and by making 
miniature urns and flower boxes out of concrete for the 
doll house, the boys got all of the necessary principles 
and a "taste" of the work in concrete. 

The carpentry in the house offered more chance for 
actual work. There were many details to be looked 
after and so a carpenter-contractor was appointed. He 
in turn picked several boys to act as foremen ; a foreman 
for each group that worked during each of the different 
periods. The different groups or journeymen were held 
responsible by the foreman. They in turn were held 
responsible by the carpenter-contractor, who was subject 
to direction from the general contractors. They were 
checked up by the architects, whose job it was to see that 
the owner's plans and specifications were fulfilled. The 
boys felt the responsibility of their work and gave all 
their efforts to seeing that their part of the job was ful- 

91 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

filled. It was necessary for them to read the blue-prints 
to carry on their jobs^ consequently the boys became 
familiar with working drawings. 

Plumbing and fixtures for the bath room and 
kitchen were given over to one of the boys in the sheet 
metal class. The bath-tub and most of the other fix- 
tures were worked up out of discarded tin cans, which 
adapted themselves very readily to the shapes desired 
with very little cutting, shaping, and soldering. The 
specifications called for electric lights, which a boy is 
shown installing in Figure VI., and an electric bell. 
Some of the boys who were taking the advanced 
shopwork were working on electrical problems and, after 
listening to several lectures given by the teacher of 
physics, understood the principles of electricity fairly 
well. But the complete system of wiring a house had 
not as yet been worked out. This afforded a very good 
practical problem in physics, and so plans and specifica- 
tions were given over to the physics class. The contract 
for the painting and interior decorating was taken by 
the art classes. In Figure VII a group of boys is shown 
developing the plans for finishing. The work on the 
curtains, and the like, was likewise taken over by the do- 
mestic arts classes. 

Furniture for the house was made by the different 
grades. Different grades furnished different rooms. 
They seemed to take great interest in this work and the 

92 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

contractor, foreman, and journeymen scheme worked 
out very well. One grade decided it would like to make the 
furniture for two of the bed rooms. Before permission 
was given to start, the members of the classes were asked 
how they would organize the work so that they would 
only have the specified furniture when finished. After 
a few suggestions, they decided that they would carry on 
a system similar to methods used in the industries. The 
job was turned over to them. The class president took 
the floor and a meeting was called to order. Tliere were 
nominations and a contractor was elected as also were 
two foremen. The rest were the journeymen, and they 
were divided in two groups by the foremen. Each fore- 
man and his group took opposite sides of the shop, while 
the contractor took the responsibility of the whole affair, 
leaving the instructor with very little to do. Another 
class took the contract for the making of the furniture 
in the living room, and worked out their ideas with the 
help of their class teacher. The manufacturing of the 
trim for the house was another problem, and it was taken 
by another grade which worked a factory system scheme. 
Visits were made to factories and their systems noted. 

The actual cost of the material used in the house 
was taken up as a practical problem in arithmetic. It 
included the finding of the number of board feet, and the 
making out of the bill of material. The wood of which 
it was constructed was studied in the science, geography, 

93 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

and industrial-arts classes by tracing the story of the 
lumber used from the seed to the finished board. The 
English class made very good oral reports on the project 
and also wrote an interesting account of it. In follow- 
ing the above scheme, nearly every department and pupil 
was represented as having some important part to play 
in the project. 

Projects in Concrete Construction.^' 
When School Number 22 at Buffalo, New York, 
purchased a universal saw and motor with the proceeds 
of candy, ice cream, and paper sales, the boys in the 
ninth grade manual-arts clacs undertook the erection 
of a suitable base for the new motor. Heretofore their 
work had been principally in wood and iron, so the con- 
struction of the necessary forms was a relatively simple 
matter. However, sand, gravel, and cement having been 
provided, the boys donned their overalls and jumpers 
and began to mix concrete in a workmanlike manner. 
When the mixture reached the proper consistency, it was 
poured into forms that the boys had made, fastened by 
the approved method, inspected, passed, and, in due 
time, utilized for the installation of the new motor. 
Since then, the motor has been in constant use and the 
concrete base is standing up under this test so as to 
prove that the boys' work compares favorably with that 
of any contractor. 



■^^Contributed by Carl R. Kraus, Instructor at Public School 
Number 22, Buffalo, New York. 

'94 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

After this initial success, there was naturally no 
abatement of enthusiasm when the lads began their next 
project; especially as its objective was turning a muddy 
back yard into a real playground. A handball court 
was the first unit of construction. Mixing the concrete, 
laying the foundation course, applying a finishing coat, 
and marking it properly improved the understanding 
and technique of the youthful builders and provided 
School Number 22 with a royal battle ground for many 
a hard fought game of handball. 

Next in order of time and of difficulty was the mak- 
ing of a basketball court. The boys laid this job out 
carefully according to accurate measurements, for which 
they were held responsible, dug holes, and mixed and 
poured the concrete, in which they set necessary posts 
for the baskets. Laying out a baseball diamond, mak- 
ing forms, and pouring concrete for bases followed as a 
matter of course. This work was performed with as 
much zeal as are the baseball games it made possible. 

Designed originally to apply in the solution of prac- 
tical problems in industrial-arts instruction for ninth 
grade boys, the work in concrete has been a source of real 
pleasure, as well as profit. Without exception, every 
])oy has been impressed with the necessity for absolute 
accuracy, has had awakened within him a love for real 
labor, has seen opening before him the doorway to a 
wider knowledge of industry, and has felt the satisfac- 
tion that comes from achievement. 

95 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 
Model Building Construction Projects.-* 

On account of the extensive local building at East 
Orange, New Jersey, we felt that our boys in school 
should receive a solid foundation in the theory and prac- 
tice of building construction. Through the close cor- 
relation of our drafting department, we were able to se- 
cure plans and specifications of simple buildings, such 
as garages, bungalows, and dwelling houses of the aver- 
age type. 

The automobile garage was featured through this 
project, and we were able to work into shop foremanship 
and group arrangement with marked success. The 
garages were built of wood, with concrete floors and 
catch basins, framed and finished to comply with the 
building laws of New Jersey. The scale used was lyo 
inches to the foot. In some instances gray cardboard 
was substituted for wood in shingling, as it well repre- 
sented slate and was much easier to handle. 

Model Garage Construction Projects." 

A class of eighteen eighth grade boys at the Burnet 
Street School, Newark, New Jersey, undertook the build- 
ing of model garages as their projects for the intensive 
five-week cycle of shopwork. The models were of frame 
construction, being made to one-eighth the size of an 
actual garage. They were 18 inches wide, 30 inches 



^^Contributed by Ernest W. Tuttle, Director of Practical Arts 
at East Orange, New Jersey. 

^^Contributed by Arthur T. Giblin, Instructor in the Burnet 
Street School, Newark, New Jersey. 

96 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

long, and 12 inches from sill to plate, the pitch of tlie 
roof being one-third. Six garages were planned and 
completed. 

This, class was divided into groups of three, one 
boy in each group acting as foreman. He was held re- 
sponsible for the quality of workmanship on his model 
and the completion of the work v/ithin the specified time. 
The other two boys worked under his direction. These 
boys showed great interest in the making of the project, 
and there was much competition between the groups. 
Talks on timber used in construction; proper sizes of 
sills, plates, studding and rafters; window framing; 
garage door building; and the use of the steel square 
helped to enliven the work. 

The art department of the school was consulted as 
to the color combinations best suited for painTing the 
garages. At this time, the subjects of ingredients neces- 
sary for making good paint ; the methods of mixing and 
application of the same were taken up. The boys of the 
several groups mixed and applied the paint to their par- 
ticular models, as each one was painted according to a 
diiferent color scheme. 

As the school is located in the heart of a zone where 
much building construction is carried on, several visits 
were made to construction jobs in the vicinity. These 
trips were followed by discussions of working conditions 
in the building trades, wages, hours of labor, and also 
the city^s building code. The garages, which were sold 

97 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

to members of the class at a price covering the cost of 
the materials used, were of such a size as to make them 
desirable for doll, dog, or rabbit houses, as well as studies 
in frame construction. 

Ballot Boxes and Folding Booths as Community 
Projects/' 

Teachers of industrial arts are beginning to see that 
many of the school projects which have been developed 
in their shops have had little practical application and 
vital connection with community life. Community pro- 
jects and problems should constitute a relatively large 
portion of the school curriculum. It is just as cultural, 
and far more beneficial, to choose some of the great prob- 
lems of the community with which to teach students 
through typical projects how to investigate and find out 
a solution to some of the things with which they must 
come in daily contact. 

Since women have the right of suffrage, it follows 
that they should receive careful instruction in the art 
of voting; but it is also essential that boys and girls of 
secondary school age should receive this instruction, as 
the responsibilities and burdens of the government will 
eventually fall upon their shoulders. 

Ballot boxes and folding booths similar to those 
shown in Figure VIII are necessities in an election in 
many communities and are, therefore, purchased from 



"flContributed by Roy S. Ray, Instructor at Shelbyvme, 
Indiana. 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 







U OCQ 

Em- 

be m 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

time to time. No better projects for introducing the 
study of government could be made in the school shops 
than these two types of construction. County commis- 
sioners at Shelby ville, Indiana, are willing to buy those 
which are satisfactorily made, and, in many cases, even 
offer encouragement by placing large orders valued from 
$100.00 to $256.00. While this is an excellent kind of 
community project, it also is one of the means of instill- 
ing real "Americanism" into public school work. 

Making and Operating Radio Instruments.^^ 
In planning the work for classes in this all-year al- 
ternating school at Newark, New Jersey, it became evi- 
dent that new problems should be introduced and that 
some medium other than wood must be used, as the ma- 
jority of boys entering the upper grades had made all of 
the models and pieces that could be constructed of wood 
in the elementary school shops. Radio telegraphy has 
been introduced very successfully in the eighth grade. 
The boys in this study of ''wireless", as it is popularly 
known, soon grasp the fundamentals of radio operating. 
They study the code at home, practicing and reviewing 
it each period for ten minutes. It is remarkable how 
quickly they master the key in transmitting messages. 
During the course they make mechanical drawings of the 
instruments to be constructed and also draw several 
plates of radio symbols. 



■-^Contributed by George F. Bowne, Instructor in tlie Lafayette 
School, Newark, New Jersey. 

100 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

The making of radio instruments brings a new ma- 
terial, metal, to these boys. The boring, filing, grind- 
ing, and polishing of the brass parts used in the construc- 
tion demand absolute accuracy. The wooden parts are 
all squared and shaped, and then stained mahogany, 
after which these are varnished and rubbed. The 
mahogany finish gives a very pleasing result with the 
polished brass. 

Several types of mineral detectors are made by the 
pupils. The brass strips are bent, soldered, and assem- 
bled; the threads are cut and the holes are tapped; while 
the knobs are cut and shaped from dowels. Two kinds 
of condensers used in radio telegraphy are assembled. 
One is of tin-foil and waxed-paper for the receiving sets, 
and the other of tin-foil and French-glass for the trans- 
mitting sets. Each condenser is enclosed in wood. 
Tuning coils and loose couplers of various sizes are 
wound on card-board tubing. This requires skill and 
patience. Some boys assemble their models on base 
boards, others use panels, and still others make up their 
sets in units. All instruments are tested and must func- 
tion before they leave the shop. 

During the construction of these models the theory 
and practice of transmitting and receiving radio mes- 
sages go on. At the end of the term the boy is capable 
of operating his own station. By thus varying the 
models and materials throughout the course, we hold 

101 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

the interest of the boy, avoid the mouotouy of repetition, 
and secure results that have a commercial as well as an 
educational value. 

Model Motor-Boat Building Projects."* 
The little water crafts which were made in the Hill- 
side junior-high school at Montclair, New Jersey, ranged 
in size from 24 inches to 36 inches, and were very popu- 
lar at the annual Montclair Boat Races that were held 
last June. Each boat was trued up so that its lines were 
very much like the large boats, which were approxim- 
mately seventy-five feet long. They were all provided 
with the details and finish or equipment that go to make 
model-boating a source of real pleasure and recreation. 

About one-half of the school year was taken up in 
completing either type made, but, nevertheless, they were 
worked out at a commercial profit to the builder. The 
boys received a great many kinds of shop activity, such 
as soldering, the use of taps and dies, working in sheet 
metal, and doing many operations with wood-working 
tools. A small electric motor is recommended for these 
motor boats. It should weigh not more than 15 ounces, 
measure only about three and one-fourth inches, and 
be equipped with a reverse switch. The motor should 
be well designed, both electrically and mechanically, and 
wound for battery current only. It is suggested that the 
motor should be made with field pieces of good wrought 

•^'Contributed by John W. Cavileer, Instructor at Junior-High 
School, Montclair, New Jersey. 

102 



PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

metal; that the armatures be constructed of charcoal 
irons, laminated and well balanced ; and that the brushes 
be made adjustable. When completed, the speed of these 
boats varies from six to ten miles an hour. 

In connection with these boat studies, essays and 
descriptions were written in the English class; the cost 
of materials was calculated in the mathematics depart- 
ment; the shipping problems were discussed in the geo- 
graphy class; the art classes made sketches for several 
posters and also a design for the front of the school 
paper ; while the print shop printed the necessary posters, 
schedules, and programs for the races. 

The annual races held by the public schools are very 
popular and have been growing more and more each year. 
Last year nearly 200 boats of all types took part. Gold, 
silver, and bronze medals were given for workmanship, 
as well as for speed. Several cups were also given by 
friends of the school system. 

Teaching Cooking to Boys and Furniture Construction to 

Girls. 

An interesting experiment was tried in the Abing- 
ton Avenue School at Newark, New Jersey, during the 
past summer. For a portion of the term, girls and boys 
interchanged their special activities; that is, the boys 
took cooking while the girls went to the shop. As this 
is an all-year and alternating-class school, opportunity 



^^Contributed by Melvia E. Barnes, Instructor in the Abington 
Avenue School, NeAvark, New Jersey. 

103 



INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND 

is given for a greater development of special subjects 
than is possible in the old type of school, although all 
subjects are handled on a try-out or prevocational basis. 

This is one of the few Newark schools where garden- 
ing is continued with war-time fervor, and the garden 
is one of the reasons for the boys^ cooking class. Pro- 
ducts of the cultivated lot always have been used for 
demonstration purposes in the girls' cooking classes, and 
it was found that this increased their zeal in both de- 
partments. Lessons on food values with practical 
demonstrations in the preparation of vegetables, it was 
thought, would increase the boys' interest in gardening. 
No attempt was made to give the detailed course in do- 
mestic science, as it is organized for the girls, but the 
groups of boys on whom the short series of cooking les- 
sons was tried learned some basic facts of food values 
and some methods that may prove valuable on camp out- 
ings. 

Home-makers are often required to give first-aid 
to damaged furniture, and knowledge of how to drive 
nails straight might be listed with the household arts. 
The girls, who had exchanged classes with the boys, 
learned some first principles of wood working. Because 
the Abington Avenue School is on the alternating or 
modified Gary plan, both of these courses as given regu- 
larly are very extensive. The girls are thoroughly in- 
structed in canning and preserving, as well as in pre- 
paring fresh foods. 

104 



